Ceramics Through the Centuries: A History of Trade and Trends
The Ceramics Sale on August 6th tells the global story of taste and tradition. Across centuries and continents, ceramics have served as both a status symbol and a storytelling medium.
Ceramics, a broad term for all objects made of earthenware, stoneware, or porcelain, are not merely functional decoration. Across centuries and continents, their use, style, and manufacturing tell a global history of taste, tradition, and trade.
In The Ceramics Sale on August 6th at STAIR, the earliest examples of porcelain are from 18th century China at a time when Chinese Export porcelain was made for the Western market and shipped to Continental Europe, England and America to keep up with high demand. Families of means ordered custom-made dinner services painted with their family armorials, which could take up to two years to manufacture and arrive in the West.
This pair of Chinese Export Armorial Vegetable Dishes and Covers are decorated with the Arms of Teissier, an example of a custom service made for a wealthy European merchant family.
The Chinese catered to Western porcelain needs and produced forms only Europeans and Americans used such as this Chinese Export Imari Porcelain Coffee Pot and Cover.
These Four Mason’s Ironstone Pitchers illustrate the beginning of the English producing their own forms with Chinese-inspired decoration.
Japanese porcelain also influenced Chinese designs. Imari patterns, characterized by underglazed blue and iron red decoration, originated in Japan. The Chinese copied and exported this style, which was highly popular in England in the 18th century. By the early 19th century, the English desire to create their own more affordable versions of these wares resulted in the development of a new type of earthenware called “stone china.”
In 1804, Englishman Charles James Mason introduced these new wares and later patented the material as “Mason’s Patent Ironstone China.” It was advertised as “being more beautiful as well as more durable” than imported Chinese porcelain. Other English manufacturers followed suit to create Ironstone Imari wares and other designs inspired by the Chinese at the height of their popularity into the mid-19th century.
This English Imari Porcelain Fruit Cooler and Cover is probably by Coalport and shows how other English manufacturers were inspired by imported Japanese and Chinese Imari wares.
These plates illustrate the continued popularity of fruit and flower motifs throughout Europe and the United Kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries and beyond.
In addition to Eastern influence, in England and on the Continent, painted food and flower motifs on porcelain were popular. Offered in this sale are two Continental trompe l’oeil plates painted with breads and nuts and a pair of Worcester dishes with fruit decoration and a whimsical pink ground border, probably early 19th and late 18th century respectively, which illustrate the use of food and flower themes.
The trend continues to this day with contemporary 20th and 21st century French ceramicist Christine Viennet. Her artwork takes a new approach to the idea of food as decoration on ceramics. Viennet creates three-dimensional trompe l’oeil models of fruits, nuts, vegetables, desserts, and places them on antique and vintage porcelain dishes and plates. Her pieces are feasts for the eyes.
Christine Viennet creates mouth-watering three-dimensional ceramic models of fruits and vegetables grouped on antique and vintage blue and white dishes.
The Ceramics Sale coming up at STAIR on August 6th at 10am, is an opportunity to explore the rich history of the medium and its inherent connection to social and economic history as it bridges gaps between people and places.
Spanning centuries, geographies, and traditions, The Ceramics Sale offers a curated exploration of form, function, and cultural exchange through works in porcelain, earthenware, and stoneware. Examples from the 18th through 20th centuries represent a cross-pollination of ideas across cultures, telling a story of social history through generations of ceramic production.
The sale features beautiful examples from English Ironstone and Creamware to sophisticated Chinese Export, Sevres and Vienna porcelain. Elevate the entertaining season with ready-to-place full and part services, party ready punch bowls, table decorations, and serving ware. Highlights include property from several private collections, including Property from the Collection of James M. Labaugh Antiques, Pound Ridge, NY and Property from the Jordan Saunders Collection.
CATALOGUE ONLINE:
Friday, July 25
GALLERY PREVIEW:
Friday, July 25: 9am – 5pm
Saturday, July 26: Closed
Sunday, July 27: Closed
Monday, July 28: 9am – 5pm
Tuesday, July 29: 9am – 5pm
Wednesday, July 30: 9am – 5pm
Thursday, July 31: 9am – 5pm
Friday, August 1: 9am – 5pm
Saturday, August 2: 11am – 5pm
Sunday, August 3: Closed
Monday, August 4: 9am – 5pm
Tuesday, August 5: 9am – 5pm