Bristol Delftware Polychrome Chinoiserie Scalloped Plates, Set of Six

Details

Description

Bristol Delftware Polychrome Chinoiserie Scalloped Plates, Set of Six
Circa 1760

This set of six Bristol delftware plates has exactly … Read more Bristol Delftware Polychrome Chinoiserie Scalloped Plates, Set of Six
Circa 1760

This set of six Bristol delftware plates has exactly the bright, hand-painted charm that makes eighteenth-century English pottery so easy to live with. Made about 1760 at the Redcliff Back Pottery in Bristol, each plate is press-molded with a deeply scalloped rim of rounded lobes and pointed cusps, an unusual shape that gives the set a lively silhouette on a wall or a table.

The center of each plate is painted with a chinoiserie garden in iron-red, yellow, two blues, yellow-green and manganese: peonies and chrysanthemum with hatched petals and yellow centers spring from a pierced blue rock, with broad leaves in blue and green, a spray of small white blossoms, and a little insect fluttering overhead. The rims are left plain white so the painting reads as a picture in a frame. Every plate was painted by hand, so each one differs a little from its neighbors, which is a large part of the appeal.

Hang the six in a grid or a loose cluster above a sideboard, run them along a kitchen shelf, or use them as the starting point for a plate wall mixed with blue and white. Their iron-red and sage-green palette sits happily with painted paneling, natural linen and warm wood, and the set works just as well in a traditional dining room as in a fresh, decorator-led interior.

Dimensions
Diameter: 9 inches (22.9 cm)
Height: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Marks
Unmarked, as is usual for English delftware.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge See less