7 août 2013

Covered tureen, early 19th century. Chinese for the American market. Hard paste. H. with cover 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Gift of Winfield Foundation, 1951 (51.86.334a,b). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art This is one of the more striking porcelains to emerge from the American trade with China. The four quadrants of the so-called Fitzhugh pattern of leaves and flowers, rendered in brilliant green enamels, serve to contrast with and... [Lire la suite]

Covered punchbowl with platter, ca. 1745. Chinese for the Swedish market. Hard paste. Punchbowl: H. with cover 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm); Platter: Diam. 21 3/4 in. (55.2 cm). Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1940 (40.133.1a,b–.2). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art This monumental punchbowl, with its original cover and platter, must have been one of the most ambitious porcelains to grace an American colonial household. We can only speculate as to how the bowl, the... [Lire la suite]

Ewer. Unknown. Chinese porcelain 1662 - 1722, French mounts 1700 - 1710. Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamel decoration; gilt bronze mounts. H: 1 ft. 6 in. x W: 1 ft. 1 7/8 in. x D: 5 3/8 in. 82.DI.3. The J. Paul Getty Museum ©J. Paul Getty Trust One of the earliest known examples of the French fashion for mounting Chineseporcelain, this ewer arrived in Europe around 1700. Although conceived as a functional vessel for beer or milk tea in China, the ewer's European owner would have... [Lire la suite]

Pair of Decorative Groups. Unknown. Porcelain: Chinese, 1622-1795; Flowers & mounts: French, 1740-45. Hard and soft-paste porcelain, polychrome enamel decoration; gilt bronze mounts. 78.DI.4. The J. Paul Getty Museum ©J. Paul Getty Trust French craftsmen combined diverse pieces of Chinese porcelain in an inventive arrangement to create these decorative groups. The two boys, originally freestanding porcelain sculptures, were known as the Immortal Twins; they were the patrons of... [Lire la suite]

Dish, ca. 1735–40. Chinese for the Scottish market. Hard paste. Diam. 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Purchase, Winfield Foundation Gift, 1962 (62.187.1). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art This beautifully drawn flower basket derives from an untraced engraving after Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–1699)—one of his many variant compositions that were freely adapted to a wide range of media long after his death. The dish is one of two in the... [Lire la suite]

Ewer, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Zhengde period (1506–21), ca. 1520. Chinese for the Portuguese market. Hard paste. H. 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm). Apocryphal mark of the Xuande period (1426–35). Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Purchase, Winfield Foundation Gift, 1961 (61.196). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Islamic form of this ewer is a reminder that the West came late to the export trade, and its impromptu nature is further emphasized by the royal... [Lire la suite]

Covered cup, ca. 1565–70. Chinese with English mounts. Hard paste and silver gilt. H. 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm). Gift of Irwin Untermeyer, 1968 (68.141.125a,b). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Six bowls of this type were recorded at Schloss Ambras in the Austrian Tyrol in 1596, five marked with a seal translated as "fine vessel for the rich and honorable." Our cup, with its sober mounts by an identified English silversmith, corresponds closely to the description of one... [Lire la suite]

Ewer, 16th century (ca. 1585). Made in China (porcelain); Made in London, England (silver-gilt). Porcelain, silver-gilt. H. 13 5/8 in. (34.6 cm). Rogers Fund, 1944 (44.14.2). The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art In the sixteenth century, Chinese porcelain occasionally arrived in England, sometimes by way of the Levant, sometimes by sea around the Cape of Good Hope. As it was very rare and considered a special treasure, the most accomplished English silversmiths... [Lire la suite]

Lidded Bowl, Unknown. Porcelain: Chinese, 1662 - 1722; Mounts: French, about 1722-1727. Hard-paste porcelain, enamel and gilding; silvermounts. H: 8 x Diam.: 9 7/8 in. 87.DI.4. The J. Paul Getty Museum ©J. Paul Getty Trust The European practice of decorating precious, exotic objects with gilt bronze or silvermounts dates back to the late Middle Ages. These mounts were a tribute not only to the beauty of the material but also to its extreme rarity. By the mid-1600s, when Europeans began to... [Lire la suite]

Pair of Ewers. Unknown . Porcelain: Chinese, 1736-1795; Mounts: French, Paris, 1745-1749. Hard-paste porcelain, underglaze blue and copper red; gilt bronze mounts. 78.DI.9. The J. Paul Getty Museum ©J. Paul Getty Trust Voltaire, one of France's most popular playwrights and philosophers in the 1700s, summarized the feelings of his country when he wrote that Europeans could do nothing but "admire, blush and, above all, imitate" the works of the Chinese civilization. The French fascination with... [Lire la suite]