Dish
ca. 1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This dish is one of four similarly decorated dishes, all of them painted with figures from the popular Chinese novel 'Water Margin', a story about brave and good-doing bandits comparable to Robin Hood. A distinct feature of the decoration is the absence of any complementary pattern in the background, as if the figures appear on a blank stage without a back-drop. A mark on the base, reading 'Studio to examine one's mind' indicates that the dishes were specially commissioned by a man of letters.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Porcelain painted in enamel colours |
| Brief description | Cer, China, Qing, f.verte |
| Physical description | Painted with a woman (on the left) imploring two man warriors. On the back is a piece of paper inscribed "Wm Beckford Esq Bath quinze chaque very fine and rare old enamel". It also bears a collector's label printed in red with two interlaced L's. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Underglaze blue mark 'wen xin zhai' on base |
| Credit line | Salting bequest |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Mr. George Salting, accessioned in 1910. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | This dish is one of four similarly decorated dishes, all of them painted with figures from the popular Chinese novel 'Water Margin', a story about brave and good-doing bandits comparable to Robin Hood. A distinct feature of the decoration is the absence of any complementary pattern in the background, as if the figures appear on a blank stage without a back-drop. A mark on the base, reading 'Studio to examine one's mind' indicates that the dishes were specially commissioned by a man of letters. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.1195-1910 |
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| Record created | September 16, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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