Cup Plate

This purple and white transfer-printed earthenware cup plate made by an unknown Staffordshire potter features a chinoiserie pattern depicting two Chinese men with pointed hats in the foreground and two Chinese pavilions in the distance. One pipe-smoking man reclines in a sleigh-shaped seat attended by a second man at his side. Throughout the nineteenth century chinoiserie motifs were a common theme on transfer-printed wares produced for the European and American markets. Typically they were based on eighteenth- or nineteenth-century engravings, but the exact source of the scene on the Museum's cup plate is unknown. Refer to the Dictionary for definitions of "chinoiserie," "cup plate" and "transfer printing."