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Pottery:
Pickleherring Pottery
(Probably)
Proprietor of pottery:
Wilhelm, Christian
Tin-glazed earthenware bottle painted in blue with 'birds-on-rocks' pattern in late Ming style, and dated 1628 below the lower terminal of the handle
Buff earthenware, thrown, tin-glazed, and painted in blue. The bulbous body stands on a low foot which is concave in the centre underneath. It has a narow cylindrical neck with a rounded rim, and a loop handle which is concave on the inside and convex on the outside. The sides are decorated wth birds standing on rocks with flowers, a flying insect and a butterfly. Below there is a row of slanting Ss between horizontal bands and above on the shoulder, slanting stripes and dots between horizontal bands, and on the neck slanting Ss between horizontal bands. On either side of the handle there is a broad blue vertical stripe, and below it the date '1628'. The exterior of the handle is blue.
History note: Bryan T. Harland, Croydon; Mrs Bryan T. Harland; sold Sotheby's, 11 February, 1931, Catalogue of the Harland Collection, first day, p. 16, lot 81
Purchased with the Glaisher Fund
Height: 19.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Bought (1931) by Sotheby's
17th Century, second quarter#
Charles I
Production date:
dated
AD 1628
: dated
In the early seventeenth century the importation of Chinese late-Ming blue and white porcelain by the Dutch and English East India Companies, was creating a demand which European potters attempted to satisfy by imitating the decoration on the white surface of tin-glazed earthenware. This bottle decorated with a late Ming design known to collectors as 'birds on rocks' is one of the earliest examples of the influence of Cjhnese blue and white porcelain on English ceramics. Numerous fragments decorated with this pattern have been found on the south bank of the Thames in the area of the Montague Close, Pickleherriing and Rotherhithe potteries. However, the date, 1628. on this bottle is significant, because in that year a royal patent for the manufacture of galliware, the contemporary term for tin-glazed earthenware, was granted to Christian Wilhelm, the proprietor of a pottery at Pickleherring in Southwark. It therefore seems likely that the bottle was made at his pottery, which was probably in Vine Yard, a short distance south of Pickleherring Street. It was operating by 1618 and continued until 1723. The 'birds on rocks' pattern can be associated with Wilhelm because it occurs on kiln wasters found nearby at Potter's Fields, Southwark. After Wilhelm's death in 1630, his son-in-law Thomas Townsend inherited the pottery and appears to have continued making wares decorated with this pattern until the early 1640s. Six more bottles similar to this are known bearing he same date.
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colour
( blue from cobalt)
Body
Accession number: C.5-1931
Primary reference Number: 75382
Glai9sher Addition number: Gl. Add. 22-1931
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Wine bottle" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/75382 Accessed: 2024-11-14 21:50:20
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/75382
|title=Wine bottle
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-14 21:50:20|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-75382
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<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa27/C_5_1931_20_281_29.jpg"
alt="Wine bottle"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Wine bottle</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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