Plate
Unknown Artist
1740–50
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions
Overall: 1 3/8 × 10 in. (3.5 × 25.4 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain-Export
Culture
Chinese, for French market
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Charles K. Davis, 1948
Accession Number
48.172.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant plate, crafted in hard-paste porcelain by an unknown Chinese artist between 1740 and 1750, exemplifies the pinnacle of18th-century export ceramics. Measuring just 1⅜ × 10 inches, its delicate translucency and fine white body—achieved through high-temperature firing—made it a prized luxury item. Produced specifically for the French market, it reflects the booming trade in Chinese porcelain via European East India Companies, where such pieces graced the tables of the aristocracy. At its center gleams a European coat of arms, meticulously painted in vibrant overglaze enamels, a cust...