Saucer, painted enamels on copper, Guangzhou, China, ca. 1800-1853

Hexagonal saucer with a raised lip and an exposed copper rim. The interior of the saucer is decorated with scrolling floral motifs painted in blue enamel and outlined in black on a white ground. Linear black strokes on the leaves and petals add shading and texture to the decoration. A stylised circular shou 壽 character in blue painted enamel with no black outline sits inside a blue circle with black outlined edges at the centre of the saucer. The interior walls of the saucer rim are decorated with a repeating pattern of stylised shapes that resemble the head of a ruyi 如意 sceptre, protruding downward from a horizontal band, all in blue painted enamel outlined in black against a white ground.

Purchased from the Bandinel collection

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 in the 18th and 19th centuries. These copper wares were also produced in Beijing for imperial consumption. In Chinese they were referred to as 'foreign porcelain' (yangci 洋瓷).

564A-1853