Coffee pot: C.724 & A-2016

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Entities

Description

Soft-paste porcelain painted overglaze in polychrome enamels with Chinese figures, stylized flowers and foliage, and gilded

Soft-paste porcelain (steatitic), thrown, with applied moulded handle, spout and knob, glazed and painted in blue, turquoise, green, yellow, red, mauve, purple, and black enamels, and gilded. The ovoid pot stands on a footring, and has a curved upward-tilting spout, and an S-shaped handle with a thumbrest at the top, and a rounded kick at the bottom. The high domed cover has a ventilation hole and a knob in the form of a flower on a stalk with two leaves. The underside of its rim and the exterior of the flange which fits inside the neck of the pot are unglazed.
One side of the pot is decorated with a Chinese garden scene. On the left a Chinese woman stands beside a table. On the right another woman holding a spray of flowers, and a little boy stand in front of a fence with a slender shrub to the right of them, and four groups of birds flying overhead. On the other side the left side of the scene shows a garden with a fence, part of a tree and bjshes, and a standing Chinese woman, who is looking round the corner of a building with a window at which is seated another women. All the figures have curved quiffs of hair on top of their heads. The area below the handle and above and below the spout are decorated with red and black flowers and foliage divided from the garden scenes by red outlines, and there is a similar spray of flowers and foliage on the underside of the spout, and a sprig on its upper side. Down the back of the handle there is a red stlized flowerhead with strokes and dots above and below. he cover is decorated with two semi-circular panels containing part of the gardens but no figures enclosed by red outlines, and with red and black flowers and foliage. The floral knob has red petals and a green centre, stalk and leaves.