Cup and saucer with butterflies

Chantilly

ca. 1735 · Tin-glazed soft-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The highly formal arrangement of stylized butterflies within a lobed form indicates that this motif (which appears on both dishes) is of Chinese origin, adapted by the Japanese to their own sense of design and color and their sense of European taste. The almost pure-white body of the Japanese example, called nigoshide, was developed for export and was used only for pieces with exclusively overglaze-enamel decoration. The lobed shape and the butterfly pattern were each copied individually at European factories, but Chantilly produced the only exact copy of the Asian import.

Artist

Chantilly

Date

ca. 1735

Medium

Tin-glazed soft-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels

Culture

French, Chantilly

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954