Dish

Object Details

• Description

  Shallow dish with wide everted rim. Two holes in rim (added by a European owner) formerly used for wire support to hang dish for display.

  Clay: porcelain.

  Glaze: clear, colorless.

  Decoration: in cobalt pigment under the glaze, design of scattered plum blossoms on a "cracked ice" ground (in Europe, the "hawthorne pattern") in the bottom and around the everted flat rim. On back, two spreading leafless branch designs on underside of rim. On base, large double ring enclosing flower with stem and leaf.

• Provenance

  To about 1990

  Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, to 1990 [1]

  From about 1990 to 2004

  Dominic Jellinek, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England, from about 2004 [2]

  From 2004

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by Dominic Jellinek in 2004

  Notes:

  [1] The donor, Mr. Dominic Jellenik, wrote to Jan Stuart in late April, 2003, to offer this dish for the Peacock Room. Mr. Jellinek related that the dish had been "abandoned" in the basement of the Bluett's shop at 48 Davies Street at the time that the firm went out of business, around 1990. As one of the last employees of the firm, Mr. Jellinek had helped to dismantle the shop and also had acquired the firm's records. He estimated that the dish must have been in the shop since the 1940s or 1950s, but there was no record. Bluett's operated in the Davies Street shop from the time the building was built, in 1923, moving there from its previous premises on Oxford Street (according to Curatorial Note 2, Louise Cort, April 16, 2004, in the object record).

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Peacock Room in Blue and White (May 18, 2019 to June 1, 2022)

  The Peacock Room (May 2, 1923 to February 21, 2011)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bluett and Sons, Ltd. (active 1884-1992)

  Dominic Jellinek

• Origin

  Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Dominic P. Jellinek

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1730s

• Name

  Jellinek, Dominic, Bluett and Sons, Ltd.

• Place

  China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen

• Topic

  Porcelain, Art, Kangxi reign (1662 - 1722), Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Ceramics, Flowers, Jingdezhen ware, Plum blossom

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)