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An opaque white pigment was mixed with the translucent colors that were so popular in the earlier period to modify them. This enabled the Chinese porcelain painter to achieve a range of color values for the first time, allowing him to reproduce subtle shades and to model his painting much as an oil painter does. Additionally, a variety of mixed tints was produced by combining colors. Westerners call this the famille rose palette. Chinese names for this palette are fencai ("pale colors") ruanca ("soft colors"), yangcai ("foreign colors") or falangca ("enamel colors"). The palette was used on both court and export wares.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
DepartmentHistoric House
Table Lamp
Datecirca 1750
Mediumporcelain, glazed; marble and metal (base)
DimensionsOverall: 31 × 11 × 11 × 34 1/2 in. (78.7 × 27.9 × 27.9 × 87.6 cm)
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1922.2.67
DescriptionA large baluster form jar with domed cover is painted in polychrome opaque enamels, known as the famille rose palette, with two large floral panels alternating with stacked pairs of smaller floral panels, all on a black ground. Flowers depicted include tree peonies, chrysanthemums, lilies and others, along with insects. Standard decorative motifs, such as pinwheels, and lambrequin and bat-wing borders complete the ornamental program. The use of opaque enamels was introduced to Chinese artists by Jesuit missionaries beginning in the mid 1720s, during the Yongzheng period (1723-35) and flourished under the reign of Chien Lung (also written Qianlong, 1711-1799, reign 1736-1796, in the last period of the Qing or Manchu emperors, 1644-1912).An opaque white pigment was mixed with the translucent colors that were so popular in the earlier period to modify them. This enabled the Chinese porcelain painter to achieve a range of color values for the first time, allowing him to reproduce subtle shades and to model his painting much as an oil painter does. Additionally, a variety of mixed tints was produced by combining colors. Westerners call this the famille rose palette. Chinese names for this palette are fencai ("pale colors") ruanca ("soft colors"), yangcai ("foreign colors") or falangca ("enamel colors"). The palette was used on both court and export wares.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
Status
On viewcirca 1700
circa 1700
circa 1700
1400-1699
1400-1699