Covered ecuelle and stand
(c. 1753-1758)
Medium
porcelain (soft-paste)
Measurements
(a-c) 12.7 × 19.5 × 19.1 cm (overall)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Anonymous Bequest, 1980
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
This two-handled covered bowl on a stand is a form of vessel known as an écuelle. An écuelle was used to serve hot soup or broth, not at the dining table but in the bed chamber. Fortifying broths were consumed by invalids or, as the eighteenth century progressed, as part of the breakfast of fashionable elites for whom the lengthy morning rituals of the toilette required suitably luxurious equipment.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
London, England
Inscription
(a) painted in red on base u.c.: (anchor) / 3
(c) painted in red on base u.c.: (anchor)
Accession Number
D33.a-c-1980
Department
International Decorative Arts
Physical description
Handles modelled in form of twigs, floral sprays in polychrome enamels.