Images(5)

D2010-CMD-71, Punch bowl, detail to show reserve

D2010-CMD-72, Punch bowl, detail to show reserve

D2010-CMD-69, Punch bowl, detail to show reserve

Punch Bowl

Dateca. 1785

OriginAsia, China, Jingdezhen

MediumPorcelain, hard-paste

DimensionsDiam: 13"; OH: 5 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach Directors

Object number2010-24

DescriptionChinese export porcelain punch bowl painted with two European-style harvest scenes alternating with two smaller Asian-inspired landscapes. The decoration set off by green bamboo fretwork and iron-red and gold Y-diaper work ground. The interior rim and foot are ornamented with trellis diaper, fretwork, and beaded borders and there is a floral spray on the interior base of the bowl. One harvest scene illustrates men and boys reaping and stooking wheat sheaves, while the other shows laborers stacking the sheaves into a hayrick, watched by a man on the right and a smiling woman on the left. These scenes appear to have been derived from an English print source.

Label TextThis large Chinese export porcelain punch bowl is decorated in vibrant famille rose enamels with scenes of the wheat harvest. Eighteenth-century English prints were likely the source for these designs, which were then copied by Chinese craftsmen. Two similarly decorated punch bowls in the British Museum collection are dated and inscribed with the names of specific English estates and the phrase "Harvest Home." While Colonial Williamsburg's bowl is not embellished in this way, the similarity of decoration suggests that bowls of this type were intended as a celebration of the harvest.

Today punch drinking is most closely associated with family gatherings and is a beverage comprised primarily of fruit juice, but during the eighteenth century punch was a popular alcoholic drink. Most frequently it was consumed communally in taverns by men. However, as the imagery on this bowl suggests, punch was also drunk at home by groups of men and occasionally, women.

ProvenancePurchased from Heirloom & Howard, West Yatton, Chippenham, England