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Tea bowl and saucer

Tea bowl and saucer
(1760-1765)

Medium
porcelain (soft-paste)

Measurements
(a-b) 4.8 × 11.6 cm diameter (overall)

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024
© Public Domain

Gallery location
17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International

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About this work

The transfer-printed decoration on this tea bowl and saucer is known as Les garçons chinois, ‘the Chinese boys’, and was probably engraved by Robert Hancock, possibly after Chinoiserie drawings by the French artist and designer Jean Pillement. Pillement was instrumental in the dissemination of the French Rococo Chinoiserie style throughout Europe during the mid-eighteenth century. His vision of Asia was utterly imaginary, a place of bizarre landscapes and foliage inhabited by figures in strange costumes devoted to endless games and pleasurable pastimes.

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
Worcester, Worcestershire, England

Accession Number
2024.400.a-b

Department
International Decorative Arts