Basket
ca. 1755-1757 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The basket is an exceptionally large and ambitious production for the Worcester porcelain factory and is finely painted with a Chinese landscape. Chinese landscapes with islands, pavilions and boats were a very popular type of decoration for eighteenth-century English pottery and porcelain, and were both hand-painted and transfer-printed (the latter after the complicated technique of transfer-printing in underglaze blue had been mastered, a great technological advance achieved at the Worcester factory around 1757 and possibly even earlier at Doccia). Smaller baskets than the one exhibited here are described in English pottery manufacturers’ catalogues as ‘dessert baskets’, and would have been used for the fruit, cakes and confectionery served during the final, dessert course of a large formal meal. Being exceptionally large, this basket may have served as a table centrepiece and used also for the bread that accompanied the earlier, predominantly savoury courses.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Soft-paste porcelain painted with underglaze blue and moulded |
| Brief description | Dessert basket of porcelain, painted in underglaze blue; oval, with a shaped rim, sides of open trelliswork with leaves in relief on the outside, and a spreading foot, made by Worcester porcelain factory, Worcester, ca. 1755-1757 |
| Physical description | Dessert basket of soft-paste porcelain, painted with underglaze blue, and oval, with a shaped rim, sides of open trelliswork with leaves in relief on the outside, and a spreading foot, also moulded with foliage, and inside on the bottom is painted with a Chinese landscape with buildings and boats on a lake, and the sides are painted with sprays of flowers and insects, and with a floral border round the rim, and a band of floral ornament is also painted round the outside above the foot. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Mark resembling 'T F' (In monogram in blue) |
| Credit line | Given by Lady Charlotte Schreiber |
| Object history | Purchased by Lady Charlotte Schreiber from MacCararthy, Cheltenham, for £2 in October 1868. Acquired as Bow porcelain. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | The basket is an exceptionally large and ambitious production for the Worcester porcelain factory and is finely painted with a Chinese landscape. Chinese landscapes with islands, pavilions and boats were a very popular type of decoration for eighteenth-century English pottery and porcelain, and were both hand-painted and transfer-printed (the latter after the complicated technique of transfer-printing in underglaze blue had been mastered, a great technological advance achieved at the Worcester factory around 1757 and possibly even earlier at Doccia). Smaller baskets than the one exhibited here are described in English pottery manufacturers’ catalogues as ‘dessert baskets’, and would have been used for the fruit, cakes and confectionery served during the final, dessert course of a large formal meal. Being exceptionally large, this basket may have served as a table centrepiece and used also for the bread that accompanied the earlier, predominantly savoury courses. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | Sch. I 480 - Schreiber number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 414:52-1885 |
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| Record created | January 16, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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