Page 15 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003
P. 15

13. I4.

made up the bulkof the Vung Taucargo-           I3. Ewer. Chinese (French market), ca. I725-30. Hard paste and silver. H. 8 4 in.
they seem to have been imported primarily       (21 cm). Marks: Le Riche (initials PLR, device a crescent);Paris countermark
to the Continentfor purposes of display.        1726-32 (crowned bell). Rogers Fund, 1925 (25.60.3)

   New markets and new technologies tend        Its Europeanformmarksthis eweras apiece madeforexport,but the enameldecoration
to go hand in hand, and one impetus for the     is in conventionalfamillevertestyle,elegantlycomposedtofit the Westernshape.The
transition to color was very likelythe emer-    mountsarebytheParisiansilversmithPaulLe Riche(i659-ca. i738, masteri686), who
gence in the 1680s of a vigorous interest in    hasonlyrecentlybeenidentffiedas having specializedin garnishingAsianporcelainand
personalized decoration, particularlyfor        lacqueras well as someearlyFrenchporcelains.
heraldic porcelain, which was the primary
decoration of table services and the most       14. Ewer. Chinese (European market), ca. I715-25. Hard paste. H. 7I/ in. (i8.i cm).
                                                Gift of Erving Wolf, 1983 (I983.489)
revolutionizingcontribution of the export
trade to Western dining customs. Services       Thegenericformof this ewer originatedin late-seventeenth-centuryFrenchsilver,the
had been anticipated by the visually coherent   frieze of uprightleavesabovethefoot simulatingcastand appliedlappets.Themask
ensembles of blue and white dishes and          underthespout,whichcouldbe mistakenforan Indian wearing afeather headdressi,s a
                                                borrowingat someremovefromsuchsilver ewers,on whichit representas classicalor
bowls of the kraakporcelain cargoes. The        grotesqueheadframedagainstapalmette. On imitativefaience ewersmadeat Rouen
planned table service of matched pieces was     and Lille earlyin the eighteenthcentury,the moldedraysof thepalmetteweretranslated
not fully developed until about 1740 on the     into thestripesthat have beencopiedhere.
Continent, but an unusually sophisticated
service, of which 125 pieces survive, had been
made as early as about 1685 at Delft, at the

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