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Basin

Basin

  • Place of origin:

    Jingdezhen (made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1745-50 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Porcelain painted in overglaze enamels and gilding

  • Credit Line:

    Salting Bequest

  • Museum number:

    C.1473-1910

  • Gallery location:

    Ceramics, Room 145, case 22, shelf 3

This basin was produced at the kilns of Jingdezhen in southeast China in the mid 18th century, and made specifically for export. The shape copies European handbasins made of metalwork.

In the 18th century Europeans greatly admired the white and resistant body of Chinese porcelain, available at low cost, but in addition to traditional shapes and designs, they also ordered tableware and household objects made in imitation of western items. The East India trading companies supplied models and patterns from Europe to Chinese potters, who could copy them using their skills and local resources.

Physical description

Porcelain basin with iron brown rim, in the form of a scallop shell on three small feet. Painted in overglaze enamels in the famille rose palette, on the inside two cockerels perched on rock with peonies growing from behind, surrounded by a band of floral scroll on black and a pink trellis diaper. On the outside, peonies and other flowers with diaper borders.

Place of Origin

Jingdezhen (made)

Date

ca. 1745-50 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown

Materials and Techniques

Porcelain painted in overglaze enamels and gilding

Dimensions

Height: 10.8 cm, Width: 38.7 cm

Descriptive line

Porcelain basin painted in overglaze enamels in the famille rose palette and gilding with cockerels and peonies, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Lehnert, Georg. Das Porzellan... mit 260 Abbildungen zum Teil in Buntdruck.. Bielefeld und Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing, 1902, abb. 18.

Labels and date

Ewer and hand basin copying European metalwork shapes
China, 1745–50
Museum nos. 500-1875; C.1473-1910, Salting Bequest [September 2009]

Materials

Porcelain

Techniques

Painted

Subjects depicted

Rock; Cockerels; Floral scrolls; Peonies; Diaper-work

Categories

Ceramics; Porcelain

Collection

East Asia Collection

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