Page 27 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003

Plate, detailof tea-cultivationscene 30. Dish and Plate. Dish: Chinese (Dutch market), ca. I740-45. Diam.
I25/8 in. (32.I cm). Inscribed 22 in underglaze blue on the underside.
Purchase,Winfield Foundation Gift, i97I (I971.32.I).Plate: Chinese
(Dutch market), ca. I740-45. Diam. ios/ in. (25.6 cm). Helena
Woolworth McCann Collection, Gift of Winfield Foundation,
1951 (51.86.100)

Thecoatof arms,long ascribedto the Snoeckfamily,hasrecentlybeen
identfied as that of GuillotofAmsterdam,with thesuggestionthat theservice
was orderedbyElias Guillot(d.1743),active in the VOCin theEast. The
blueand white dishcomesfromoneof at leasttwo tableservicesdepicting
stagesin tea cultivation.The individualpiecesof eachservicewere numbered
from i to23. Severalof thescenesareidenticalto watercolorsin an album
at Drottningholm,Sweden,of aboutI75o, itselfapparentlycopiedfroma
Chinesewoodblockseriesof 739. Whetherthestrikingborderpattern shared
bythesepiecesimpliesa link betweenthemis not known;theworkof a master
designer,it borrowselementsfroma Rouenfaienceborderof the earlyi74os.

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