Vase Depicting a Phoenixlike Bird

Description

Chinese blue-and-white porcelain arrived in the Americas during the 1570s, when the Manila Galleons began crossing the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines and back. Cargoes of Asian luxury goods landing at Acapulco were transshipped to Colonial Mexico City and Puebla, where they remained until shipment continued across the Atlantic Ocean to Seville. A thriving ceramic industry developed in Puebla, producing glazed earthenware imitating porcelain and freely adapting Chinese designs, often with humorous vitality. This vase of Chinese shape displays panels with phoenix-like birds framed by dot-and-leaf patterns, scrolled tendrils, and semicircular “Chinese asters” beneath a cloudlike canopy. Floral bands on the shoulder and footing of the jar similarly reflect decorations derived from blue-and-white export porcelain.

Provenance

Herbert Pickering Lewis (1876–1922), Mexico City, Mexico, from late 19th/early 20th century [correspondence and research in curatorial object file]; by descent to his widow, Eva Lewis (born Eva Hill, died c. 1964), Mexico City, Mexico, from 1922 [exported from Mexico Oct./Nov. 1923; received in Chicago Dec. 3, 1923 according to correspondence from Eva Lewis to Robert Harshe, Nov. 4, 1923, and incoming permanent receipt R1335, Dec. 3, 1923, copies in curatorial object file, Arts of the Americas]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1923.

Vase Depicting a Phoenixlike Bird

Talavera Poblana

1700–50

Accession Number

10435

Medium

Tin-glazed earthenware

Dimensions

H.: 49 cm (19 1/4 in.)

Classification

earthenware

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Eva Lewis in memory of her husband, Herbert Pickering Lewis