Master Art

Jiaqing period
American Market
from the Golden Gate Collection

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.