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Monteith This vessel, which was intended for chilling wine glasses, does not bear a British coat of arms, but its form derives from an English silver example, suggesting it was intended for an English client.
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Dish with a scene of tea cultivation (one of a pair) These dishes belonged to a table service decorated with scenes of the cultivation of tea. The upper dish illustrates the production of metal containers for transporting tea. The lower one depicts rattan being applied to the outside of a container, while on the right a man is packing tea by stomping it down. These cylindrical containers were used to transport the tea to Canton, where it was repacked in metal-lined wooden chests for shipment to Europe and elsewhere. Chinese potters' borrowing of French pottery motifs for the border design speaks to the stylistic cross-currents enabled by the extensive trade in the eighteenth century.
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Sauceboat Boat-shaped with wavy rim and loop handle with thumb-piece and detatched heart-shaped terminal, the outside moulded with flowers; painted in underglaze blue beneath the pouring with a flower spray. The interior is painted in underglaze blue with flower-sprays and with cell-diaper border.
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Taperstick As the European market for Chinese porcelain grew, so, too, did the desire for specifically Western forms. In response, Chinese potters looked to European examples in other materials for inspiration. The stepped square-sectioned shape of this porcelain taperstick, for instance, is derived from European metalwork.
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Drug Jar The Dutch East India Company, the largest trading company between Europe and Asia in the late 17th century, ordered the creation of this vessel, which bears the label “Diacarth”, a reference to a type of medicinal paste. The jar was produced at a Chinese kiln in Jingdezhen, the center of ceramic production in southeastern China.
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Dish with John the Baptist Christian symbols appear on Chinese porcelain as early as the early sixteenth century, but this unusually large plate is one of the first known works with a biblical scene. The composition depicting John the Baptist and Christ in the Jordan River is based on a passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, as indicated by the inscription ("MAT. 3, 16"). The plate may have been intended for export to Europe or for use by recently converted Christians in China.
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Dish with IHS monogram, armillary sphere, and Portuguese royal arms While the doglike lions illustrate a Chinese theme, the Portuguese coat of arms and the armillary sphere (a type of celestial globe) are often found on works made for Portugal in the early sixteenth century. The letters "I.H.S.," a well-known Latin reference to Jesus Christ, would later be adopted by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus founded in 1534) as a symbol for their order.
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Jar with the emblem of the Order of Saint Augustine The primary motif on this jar—a double-headed eagle clutching a heart pierced with arrows—served as the emblem of the Catholic Order of Saint Augustine. In the sixteenth century, Augustinian friars established monasteries in Mexico, the Philippines, and Macau (in Southern China); the jar may have been produced for missionaries in one of these locations. While the jar probably served a functional purpose, its white porcelain body and cobalt-blue decoration would have appeared luxurious to friars accustomed to humble vessels.
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Saucer Porcelain saucer with rounded cavetto and flattened rim. There is a scene of the demolition of Rotterdam during riots in 1690 in underglaze cobalt blue in the centre, and four cartouches containing stylized fruits and flowers against a patterned ground on the cavetto. There are four auspicious motifs on back.
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Deep Dish The design of this bowl, with a central panel of birds and flowers surrounded by a segmented rim, is typical of the earliest Chinese porcelain made for export to Europe, known as Kraak ware. Produced from the Wanli period (1573–1619) to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644, these wares were not as refined in shape or decoration as pieces meant for the Chinese court. The origin of the name Kraak was most likely the large Portuguese trading ships used for Asian trade called carracks on which these porcelains were transported to Europe. Kraak porcelain was frequently featured in Dutch still life paintings of foreign luxuries.