Master Art

American Market
from the Golden Gate Collection

Price:  £3,600

A Chinese export porcelain armorial bowl with the American eagle design behind a shield with initials JS, the rim with a delicate series of grisaille bands.

This elegant and simple bowl has a design that is derived from the Great Seal of the United States and is an example of a type made for the American market at the end of the eighteenth century. Examples are known with various different initials and the enterprising Chinese merchants used it as a basic template for the Americans, who they called “Flowery Flag Devils” and “Second-chop Englishmen”, newly arrived in Canton in the late 18th century. Similar teaservices are known to have been ordered by President John Adams (1735-1826) and President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)

References: Howard & Ayers 1978, p 506-7, two coffee pots; Litzenburg 2003, p268, a coffee pot; Lange 2005, p256, a coffe pot; Mudge 1981, p200m No 315; Mudge 1986, p189, fig. 83.


This item is currently located in the USA and may be subject to additional shipping and import charges if shipped outside the USA. However, this also means it is NOT subject to any tariffs on Chinese-made goods entering the USA.