Dish: C.2406-1928

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unknown

Entities

• Dish

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Netherlands maiolica

Description

Tin-glazed earthenware painted in dark blue, pale green, and brownish-orange with a standing dish of tazza form filled with fruit and foliage, surrounded by a blue border of compartments containing Chinese symbols and flower motifs in Wanli style

Buff earthenware, tin-glazed on the front and painted in blue, pale green, and brownish-orange; the reverse is lead-glazed, probably over slip. Circular with a sloping rim, deep well with curved sides, standing on a footring. The front is decorated with a central medallion enclosing a standing dish or tazza filled with fruit, including a bunch of blue grapes, round orange fruits spotted with blue, and smaller orange fruits, perhaps cherries. The rim and sides are decorated with a blue border of oval compartments containing alternately Chinese symbols and flower motifs in the style of porcelain of the Wanli period. There are three spur marks on the front near to the middle.

Notes

History note: Unidentified dealer in Lincoln, where bought by the vendor, Mr Jolley, Bridge Street, Cambridge; sold for £2.5s.0d. on 19 February 1910 to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge. According to the 1919 Street and General Directory of Cambridge, B Jolly & Sons were at 33 Bridge Street.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

17th Century, second quarter
Circa 1625 CE - 1650 CE

Note

The border imitates the borders of Chinese dishes of the Wanli period (1573-1619) which were being imported by the Dutch East India Company. An almost identical design appears on a dish in a Dutch private collection. Another is in the Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem.