Dish

Shallow dish with wide everted rim. Two holes in rim (added by a European owner) formerly used for wire support to hang dish for display.
Clay: porcelain.
Glaze: clear, colorless.
Decoration: in cobalt pigment under the glaze, design of scattered plum blossoms on a “cracked ice” ground (in Europe, the “hawthorne pattern”) in the bottom and around the everted flat rim. On back, two spreading leafless branch designs on underside of rim. On base, large double ring enclosing flower with stem and leaf.

Historical period(s)
Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign, early 18th century
Medium
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear glaze
Style
Jingdezhen ware
Dimensions
H x Diam (overall): 4.1 x 26.9 cm (1 5/8 x 10 9/16 in)
Geography
China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen
Credit Line
Gift of Dominic P. Jellinek
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F2004.38
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Dish

Keywords
China, flower, Jingdezhen ware, Kangxi reign (1662 - 1722), plum blossom, porcelain, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911)
Provenance

To about 1990
Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, to 1990 [1]

From about 1990 to 2004
Dominic Jellinek, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England, from about 2004 [2]

From 2004
Freer Gallery of Art, given by Dominic Jellinek in 2004

Notes:

[1] The donor, Mr. Dominic Jellenik, wrote to Jan Stuart in late April, 2003, to offer this dish for the Peacock Room. Mr. Jellinek related that the dish had been "abandoned" in the basement of the Bluett's shop at 48 Davies Street at the time that the firm went out of business, around 1990. As one of the last employees of the firm, Mr. Jellinek had helped to dismantle the shop and also had acquired the firm's records. He estimated that the dish must have been in the shop since the 1940s or 1950s, but there was no record. Bluett's operated in the Davies Street shop from the time the building was built, in 1923, moving there from its previous premises on Oxford Street (according to Curatorial Note 2, Louise Cort, April 16, 2004, in the object record).

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Dominic Jellinek
Bluett and Sons, Ltd. 1884-1992

Description

Shallow dish with wide everted rim. Two holes in rim (added by a European owner) formerly used for wire support to hang dish for display.
Clay: porcelain.
Glaze: clear, colorless.
Decoration: in cobalt pigment under the glaze, design of scattered plum blossoms on a "cracked ice" ground (in Europe, the "hawthorne pattern") in the bottom and around the everted flat rim. On back, two spreading leafless branch designs on underside of rim. On base, large double ring enclosing flower with stem and leaf.

Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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