Page 49 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

5I. Punch Bowl. Chinese (American market),
ca. I785-90. Hard paste. H. 53/4 in. (I4.8 cm).
Bequest of Elizabeth V. Loudon and Gift of
John C. Dreier, Theodore C. Dreier, Dana S.
Lamb, Mrs. Garrett R. Stearly and Mrs.
Peter V. S. Voorhees, i973 (I973.I67)

A number of punch bowls are known that depict
a continuous scene the Canton waterfront and
of
itsforeign factories. This example is distin-
guished by an American flag, which appears to
an
be original but was perhaps afterthought,
amidst the
given its incorrectplacement sequence
or
of theforeign factories, hongs; its size
(slightly smaller than the otherflags); and its
irregular shape. Typically, "hong" bowlsfeature
ajforal motifon the interior, but in this instance
the interior is decorated with a ship. The vessel is
shown not underfull sail but in the process of
being constructed. That vignette, in combination
with the initials BGE above it, give the bowl
historical and biographical
interest. The cipher
to
refers Benjamin Eyre (b. i738), in whose
G.
family the bowl descended. Eyre, an aide-de-
to
was one three
camp George Washington, of
brothers. All them were shipbuilders in
of
used
Philadelphia, where they launchedfrigates
during the Revolutionary War. The bowl may
have been cargo on the Globe, one the Eyre
of
....
ships that made eight voyages to Canton. ...: t.S i..: ; Punch bowl, detail
of interior

52. Plate. Chinese (American market), ca. I796-I805. Hard paste.
Diam. 87/8 in. (22.5 cm). Sansbury-Mills Fund, I97I (I971.94)

This plate comesfrom a service madefor DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828)
and his wife, Maria Franklin Clinton (1775-1818), of Albany, New
York, and bears a monogram of both their initials, DWMC, in gold
of
on the border each piece. The rest the border is decorated in poly-
of
of
chrome with eight Chinese immortals, each standing on stylized clouds of
varying colors. The central designfeatures a broad Chinese landscape in
a complementary palette.

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