Lowestoft Porcelain Factory. <em>Sauce Dish</em>, late 18th century. Nankeen ware porcelain, Assembled: 6 11/16 x 8 9/16 x 6 5/16 in. (17 x 21.7 x 16 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sarah D. Gardiner, 44.139.5a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.44.139.5a_top.jpg)

Lowestoft Porcelain Factory. Sauce Dish, late 18th century. Nankeen ware porcelain, Assembled: 6 11/16 x 8 9/16 x 6 5/16 in. (17 x 21.7 x 16 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sarah D. Gardiner, 44.139.5a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.44.139.5a_top.jpg)

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hello. You are looking at a porcelain gravy dish.

Although some Asian porcelain reached Europe by overland trade through Venice during the early Renaissance, it was during the sixteenth century that European, especially Dutch, seagoing explorers brought large quantities of Asian blue-and-white porcelain to the West.

Europeans were so enamored of these wares that by about 1602, potteries in Delft, the Netherlands, started to produce imitation blue-and-white ceramics. Delft wares were actually earthenware covered with a thick tin-based glaze that imitated the Asian porcelain ceramic body. In Delft, Asian forms and decoration were imitated rather closely, but soon artists began to produce entirely new forms and decorations with Western themes.

Tell me more.

This gravy dish is so beautiful. It is called Nankeen ware porcelain. 'Nankeen' comes fromNanking, or Nanjing, the place in China where this style of porcelain was first produced.

Nankeen wares were first imported from China and later copied by European makers and had blue ornament on a white ground.

I was wondering if they used the dish for actual gravy or if it was ornamental?

Great question. The porcelain was completely functional. It was meant to be used (and shown off in the process).

As for when, since this is a gravy dish, it would have held gravy during a dinner party. It was meant to show off the wealth and sophistication of the owner hosting the dinner.

Sauce Dish

Decorative Arts

The blurred lines of the cobalt decoration on this small tureen are a sign of low-grade materials and less skilled workmanship. Porcelains of this inferior quality would not have been acceptable to an elite Chinese audience, but they were exported in very large numbers to Europe. Their port of departure, Nanking, gave its name to these wares, but they were likely made at the porcelain kilns of Jingdezhen.

MAKER Lowestoft Porcelain Factory

MEDIUM Nankeen ware porcelain

DATES late 18th century

DIMENSIONS Assembled: 6 11/16 x 8 9/16 x 6 5/16 in. (17 x 21.7 x 16 cm) Platter only (a): 7/8 x 8 9/16 x 6 5/16 in. (2.3 x 21.7 x 16 cm) Tureen only (b): 3 7/8 x 7 11/16 x 4 15/16 in. (9.8 x 19.5 x 12.5 cm) Lid only (c): 2 15/16 x 6 1/8 x 4 1/2 in. (7.5 x 15.5 x 11.5 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Decorative Arts

ACCESSION NUMBER 44.139.5a-c

CREDIT LINE Gift of Sarah D. Gardiner

EXHIBITIONS

Infinite Blue

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Lowestoft Porcelain Factory. Sauce Dish, late 18th century. Nankeen ware porcelain, Assembled: 6 11/16 x 8 9/16 x 6 5/16 in. (17 x 21.7 x 16 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sarah D. Gardiner, 44.139.5a-c. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.44.139.5a_top.jpg)

IMAGE top, CUR.44.139.5a_top.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Tell me more.

hello. You are looking at a porcelain gravy dish.

Tell me more.

This gravy dish is so beautiful. It is called Nankeen ware porcelain. 'Nankeen' comes fromNanking, or Nanjing, the place in China where this style of porcelain was first produced.

Nankeen wares were first imported from China and later copied by European makers and had blue ornament on a white ground.

I was wondering if they used the dish for actual gravy or if it was ornamental?

Great question. The porcelain was completely functional. It was meant to be used (and shown off in the process).

As for when, since this is a gravy dish, it would have held gravy during a dinner party. It was meant to show off the wealth and sophistication of the owner hosting the dinner.

Collection Menu

Sauce Dish

Decorative Arts

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