Sold Cermics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1

Object 2012198

Milk bowl

China

1745-1752

Height 60 mm (2.36 inch), diameter of rim 112 mm (4.41 inch), diameter of footring 54 mm (2.13 inch)

weight 185 grams (6.52 ounce (oz.))

Small milk bowl on splayed foot with a wide footring, steep sides and an everted rim. The rim with a short pinched spout and a small ribbed side handle with thumb rest. Decorated in underglaze blue with a pine tree, flowering lotus and other plants growing from rockwork. On the bottom a single flowering lotus. Round the inner rim a small band with diaper patterns alternating with panels filled with half flower heads.

In 1745 the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) ships take along milk bowls to the Netherlands for the first time, in rather small quantities. This stops after 1752, but in the sixties the occasionally reappear. Shipping invoices and reports do not describe them, but only refer to drawings or samples. We read, however, that a milk bowl should have a handle, while the order for 1750 mentions two sizes: one for half a pint and one with the contents of a mingele (2 pints or 1.2 litres).

In the wreck of the VOC ship Geldermalsen (1752) Captain Michael Hatcher found 479 of the 548 such milk bowls on the shipping invoice - exclusively in underglaze blue - with a handle and short spout in two different sizes, finally making clear what a milk bowl looks like.

Little is known about the use of these milk bowls. Presumably children and old people slop their bread in them and then pour out the remaining milk. They could also be used to skim the cream off the milk. The rare milk bowls in existing collections can now be recognized as to type and dated more accurately. (Jörg 1986/1, pp.72-73, fig. 59)

Howard states that these milk (dairy) bowls were imported into Holland in any quantity only for eight years (1745-1752), and probably there was no private trade in this form. (Howard 1994, p.225)

For similarly shaped milk bowls, please see:

Condition: Firing flaws to the handle and inner rim and a chip to the rim.

References:

Howard 1974, p.772

Amsterdam 1986, lot 4001-4130

Jörg 1986/1, fig.59

Sheaf & Kilburn 1988, Pl. 183

Howard 1994, cat. 264

Price: Sold.