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Double-handled cup and saucer

Photo: Paul Macapia

Double-handled cup and saucer

ca. 1729-31

Meissen began copying Japanese Kakiemon wares in the mid-1720s when these wares were the height of fashion in Europe. This cup and saucer are marked with the factory's crossed swords in overglaze enamel, rather than the standard underglaze blue. Because the overglaze marks could be removed, these wares were almost certainly a part of an early fraudulent scheme to produce porcelains intended to be sold at a higher price as Japanese originals. The plan was uncovered and the perpetrators jailed or deported.
Hard paste porcelain with enamel colors
Cup: 2 3/8 x 4 3/16 in. (6 x 10.64 cm)
Saucer: 1 3/16 x 5 5/8 in. (3.02 x 14.3cm)
Gift of Martha and Henry Isaacson
61.75
Provenance: Formerly Colls., Dresden, Royal Saxon Coll. from which duplicates were sold in Oct. 1919 and Oct. 1920; Martha Isaacson, Seattle, Washington (one of 6) bought in Germany; Donated to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington by Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Isaacson; March 22, 1961 From paper card placed into object file, May 2009
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum", October 7, 2007 - January 8, 2008 (10/7/2007 - 1/8/2008)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe", February 17, 2000-May 7, 2000 (2/17/2000 - 5/7/2000)
Published ReferencesShirahara, Yukiko. "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, pl. 131, p. 170

Emerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, & Mimi Gardner Gates. "Porcelain Stories, From China to Europe." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2000, p. 166

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