Page 23 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

imperial workshops between 1716 and
1729 has been well documented. European
enamels on copper-the base material was
covered by an opaque white, painted and

fired in colors that included shades of pink-
were the stimulus, acquired from the Jesuits
as gifts for the Kangxi emperor, who in
turn enlisted several missionaries to teach

the technique. As the materials and firing
methods were applicable to enameling on
metal as well as on porcelain, the famille
rose developed in both media contempo-
raneously, at the end of the Kangxi period;
its earliest datable appearance in export
porcelain is in a service of about 1722 for a
wealthy English merchant, Sir John Lambert
(d. 1723). A difference between the Chinese
21. Plaque. Chinese (Continental market), mid-i8th century. Hard paste. and European formulas has recently been
x i77/8 in. (26.4 x
Io3/8 45.4 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, noted. In both, colloidal gold was the basis
Purchase, Gift of Winfield Foundation, by exchange, and Winfield Foundation of the red, but in Europe the white was
Gift, 1982 (I982.128)
opacified by the admixture of tin oxide,
while the Chinese used lead arsenate,
Dutch
is
The riverscape afamiliar typefrom seventeenth-century prints and drawings,
but the particularpictorial modelfor this plaque has not been identified. Although which had long been an ingredient of their
entirely drawn in line of varying intensity, the efect is unexpectedlypainterly. cloisonne enamels.

22. Teapot. Chinese (Swedish market), ca. 1755.
Hard paste. H. with cover 5/4 in. (3.3 cm).
Purchase, Erving Wolf Foundation Gift, 1983
(I983.164a, b)

The scene, which is repeated
on the opposite side,
depicts the apotheosis of Gustav III (1746-1792) as i h
heir to the Swedish throne; it is copied with care
.
andfidelity-and a modest addition of flesh tones- xi.lliE
an
from engraving by Abraham Delfos (1731-1820),
a
in
published I754 after drawing by Hieronymus
van der
My (I687-176I).
22