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Fruit Basket

A work made of soft-paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration, and glaze.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of soft-paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration, and glaze.

Date:

c. 1770–72

Artist:

American China Manufactory (American, active 1770-72)
Philadelphia

About this artwork

This delicate fruit basket is a rare example of early American porcelain, one of around 20 known surviving works by Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris’s American China Manufactory. Porcelain is a strong, luminous type of clay that originated in China, where its formula was a heavily guarded secret. It eventually emerged as a prized material in global luxury goods, causing fierce competition between various producers of porcelain wares. The American China Manufactory fruit basket represents the early advancements of this industry in the American colonies, which followed English precedents such as the Worcester Porcelain Factory basket also in this case.

Status

On View, Gallery 168

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

American China Manufactory (Producer)

Title

Fruit Basket

Places

Philadelphia (Object made in:), United States (Object made in:)

Date

c. 1770-1772

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration, and glaze

Inscriptions

Marked on bottom, in underglaze blue: "Z" (inverted).

Dimensions

5.1 × 14.7 × 14.7 cm (2 × 5 3/4 × 5 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Vance American Art Fund; Americana, Jane and Morris Weeden, and Roger and J. Peter McCormick endowment funds

Reference Number

2022.588

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/266210/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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