Dish, painted enamels on copper, Guangzhou, China, 18_th century

The face of this dish is painted with a circular scene of figures and buildings in a landscape. Two red bands with a white ground between them separate the circular scene from a border of floral scrolls on a yellow ground that runs to the rim of the dish. The copper body is exposed at the rim. There is a seal script inscription on the reverse, which reads: "diao yue geng yun 釣月耕雲" (fish for the moon and cultivate the clouds). The phrase alludes to an idealised life of reculsion.

Purchased

Purchased from Dr. S. W. Bushell (Beijing), accessioned in 1883. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

label

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).

836-1883