Circular form with wide rim curving inward to form shallow well; underglaze blue, overglaze iron-red and gilt decoation in Japanese Imari palette with central medallion of chrysanthemums; cavetto border diapered with trellis design and for reserves of small chrysanthemums; rim decorated wtih four groups of flowering branches; centers of flowers and leaf outlines gilded; two oriental stylized motifs in blue on inner side of rim; brown edge.
dinner plates
porcelain
gilding
overglazing
underglazing
Imari
Dish, Eating
Plate, Food
Plate, Dinner
Plate, Dinner
In Cherished Possessions 2003-2005: In 1744, Jonathan Sayward was commissioned to aid in an expedition to lay siege to the French fortress at Louisbourg, in Nova Scotia. According to family tradition, he brought back this Chinese dinnerware as booty from Louisbourg. The plates, in what today is called the Imari palette, imitate Japanese porcelains in a style fashionable in Europe in the 1730s. Chinese porcelains like these were highly coveted in the colonies, and these would have been great treasures when Sayward brought them to his home in York, Maine.
Original to Sayward-Wheeler House (York Harbor, Me.),
Battle of Louisburg
Unknown
China
1 3/16 (H), 8 7/8 (diameter) (inches)
Gift of the heirs of Elizabeth Cheever Wheeler
1977.405.1
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