Soup Plate

Dateca. 1760

MediumHard-paste porcelain

DimensionsOverall: 1 5/8in. (4.1cm); Other: 9in. (22.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2008-5,2

DescriptionChinese export porcelain soup plate decorated with a painted design in underglaze cobalt blue. Decoration consists of a pair of peafowl beside a tree in a fenced garden within a spearhead border, the rim with shaped flower, foliate and cell pattern borders.
Label TextThis Chinese export porcelain soup plate with underglaze blue bird and landscape decoration descended in the Beverly family and was used at Blandfield Plantation in Virginia. It bears the same design as a pair of oval dishes (2008-90, 1&2) that were acquired by Colonial Williamsburg. This plate is part of the large dinner service ordered by Robert Beverley of Blandfield Plantation in 1764. In a letter to his London factor, John Bland, Beverley indicated that he would like a "complete set of china, the whole to be sufficient for two genteel courses of victuals. I hope you will be kind enough to choose the China of the most fashionable sort."
ProvenanceOriginally owned by William Beverley of Blandfield Plantation, Essex County, Virginia. Descended through the family and in 2008 ownership was transferred from Rebecca B. Kanis of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina to Colonial Williamsburg.