A Rare Chinese Export Porcelain ‘Hans Sloane’ Type Plate
A Rare Chinese Export Porcelain ‘Hans Sloane’ Type Botanical Plate, Jingdezhen Kilns, Qianlong c.1755-1760. Botanical style painting of an Auricula. As David Howard and John Ayres mention in China for the West (see References) when describing a plate of this design It is… “painted in a remarkably direct style after a European botanical print”. They speculate whether it is based on what they refer to as “reminiscent of so-called ‘Sir Hans Sloane’ flowers painted on Chelsea porcelain of this period”. I don’t think it matches any known Chelsea Hans Sloane type design, and I have not seen the print reference for it. It does seem highly likely it was based on a coloured print, rather than a monochrome engraving or etching. Perhaps, one of the prints made from the plants at Sir Hans Sloane’s Chelsea Physic Garden. Unfortunately, the origin of this design is unknown, well to me at least. Do let me know if you know of a reference for this design. See below for a botanical painting of an auricula by my mother as well as Chelsea porcelain plates from Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In the 1680s, Sir Hans Sloane, trained at Chelsea Physic Garden. This enabled him to have a lengthy career as a notable physician and scientist. After studying, he worked as the personal physician to the Duke of Albemarle in Jamaica, which was then a British Colony. Sloane returned to England and bought the manor of Chelsea. This estate was made up of 166 acres of land, including Chelsea Physic Garden. In 1722, Sloane agreed to rent these four acres to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for £5 per year in perpetuity. This ensured that the Garden would forever be used as a place to teach people about plants.
link to the Chelsea Physic Garden
See Below For More Photographs and Information.
RESERVED
- Condition
- A long fine clean hairline crack to the rim (see close up photographs, from and back), frititing and small glaze chips to the back edge.
- Size
- Diameter 23.2 cm (9.14 inches)
- Provenance
- N/A
- Stock number
- 25926
- References
- A botanical plate of this size and design is illustrated in : China for the West, Chinese Porcelain & other Decorative Arts for Export Illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection (David S. Howard and John Ayers, Sotheby's, 1978) Volume 2, page 537, plate 551.
Photos
Information
Auricula Painted by my Mother Christine Francis Stephenson (retired).
A Botanical Watercolour - Auricula Arundel Stripe.
Royal Horticultural Society:
Silver Medal 1995
Gold Medal 1996
Society of botanical artists:
Elected Member 1997
Certificate of Botanical Merit 1999.
A Chelsea Porcelain 'Hans Sloane' Plate c.1755.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
These botanical plates (2016.217–.226) were produced by the Chelsea factory around 1755 and are often referred to as Chelsea "Hans Sloane" wares, in reference to the royal physician, traveler, and natural historian who helped transform the Chelsea Physic Garden into a center of botanical knowledge during the British Enlightenment. Several subjects depicted on these plates were taken from botanical illustrations published by Philip Miller, curator of Chelsea Physic Garden. Although flowers and fruits could typically be found on earlier porcelain wares from Meissen, the lively naturalism of the Chelsea botanical plates reflects a broadening public interest in the natural world, and evidence the forms of global commerce that brought exotic species from the Caribbean, the Americas, and Asia to England.
Public Domain.