Page 21 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

17. Dish. Chinese (Scottish market), ca. i735. Hard paste. Greatest w. 3/8 in. easily confused with the arms of other fami-
5
(39.1 cm). Gift of Mary Knight Arnold, 1978 (1978.520.2) lies, if the shield is a common one (figs. 10,
16); so it is not surprising to find an enameled
The thick and layered, rather than shaded, dark rose the mantling identifies this
of
armorial as early as 1702 on dated plates for
in
as an early example of thefamille rose, whichfirst appeared armorialporcelain
the Dutch family de Vassy. Enamel colors-
about 1722. The thickness is characteristic: the enamel colors Chinese export wares
of
almost invariably higher on the surface than they do in otherAsian or European especially those of the later famille rose-
sit
hard-paste porcelains. must surely have stimulated the fashion for
armorials, which pervaded the private trade
The arms are those ofJames,fifth duke Hamilton (I702/3-I743). The service is of all the participating countries (fig. 17).
of
of
nearly identical to another bearing his arms and those his third wife, whom he
The development of the famille rose
married in I737, and must have been ordered
shortly before thatyear.
changed the character both of export porce-
lain and of Chinese porcelain made for the
domestic market. Its much discussed origin
has centered on the Jesuits, whose role in
introducing the art of painted enamels in the

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