Punch bowl
Category
Ceramics
Date
1700 - 1720
Materials
Porcelain, cobalt, gold
Measurements
410 mm (Height); 340 mm (Diameter); 190 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870843
Summary
Punch bowl, porcelain, round, made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, Kangxi period (1662–1722), 1700–20, the exterior covered with an underglaze blue ground decorated with symmetrical vignettes of stylised flowers and foliage in gold and a gold diaper-pattern band around the rim, the interior with a band of stylised foliage in gold interspersed with chrysanthemum-like rosettes in overglaze red around the rim and a stylised lotus-like rosette in red and gold in the centre.
Full description
The use of an underglaze cobalt blue ground is sometimes called Mazarin (or Mazareen) blue in English, after the French bleu The use of an underglaze cobalt blue ground is sometimes called Mazarin (or Mazareen) blue in English, after the French bleu Mazarin, possibly after Cardinal Mazarin (1602–61), prime minister of France, or his niece Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin (1646–99) – but the reason for this is obscure. The cobalt could be applied through blowing, painting or dipping and was decorated in painted gold. The symmetrical floral and foliate ornament in gold may have been inspired by European baroque ornament, for instance the designs by the French goldsmith Paul Androuet du Cerceau (1623–1710) – see for instance a print in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. E.3952-1907, illustrated in Thornton 1998). Punch, a drink served in a large bowl to be drunk communally, came into vogue in late-17th-century Europe, influenced by the availability of sugar and spices through global trade and colonialism. The drink consisted of alcoholic spirits, water, sugar, lemon or lime and nutmeg and other spices. The name ‘punch’ appears to be derived from the Hindu panch or the Persian panji, meaning ‘five’, referring to the number of ingredients (Glanville and Young [eds.] 2002). A similarly decorated blue-ground punch bowl was sold at Rob Michiels Auctions, 13 March 2021, lot 1059. The decoration of this punch bowl relates to that of a dish at Saltram, inv. no. [TBC].
Provenance
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust, 1957.
References
Glanville and Young (eds.) 2002: Philippa Glanville and Hilary Young (eds.), Elegant Eating: Four Hundred Years of Dining in Style, London, 2002., p.106 Thornton 1998: Peter Thornton, Form and Decoration: Innovation in the Decorative Arts, 1470–1870, London, 1998., pl.248, p.120.