Saucer, painted enamels on copper, Guangzhou, China, 18th-19th century

This saucer is painted with polychrome enamels on a copper body. It has a twelve lobed, scalloped rim and a short ring foot. The centre of the saucer is decorated with two figures in a landscape scene, one in European dress and the other in Chinese. The Chinese figure is in a pink robe, carrying a stringed musical instrument called a qin. The pictorial scene is surrounded by a thick, circular pink band set between two brown bands. The inside of the raised rim is decorated with a scrolling plant design in black enamel on a light blue ground. The exterior of the rim is decorated with three sprays of scrolling plants in blue set against a white ground. There is a scrolling floral motif in pink enamel at the centre of the base, set against a white ground.

The museum collection contains a matching set of cup and saucer: 36-1874 and 36A-1874.

Purchased, price includes both 35&35A-1874

Purchased from a source not recorded in the Asia Department registers, accessioned in 1874. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

Painted enamels of this kind were commonly known in English as 'Canton enamel', after the main centre of their production in South China. They were popular export products in the 18_th and 19_th centuries. These copper wares were also produced in Beijing for imperial consumption. In Chinese they were referred to as 'foreign porcelain' (yangci 洋瓷).

35A-1874