Dish stand
ca. 1760
Medium
Soft-paste porcelain
Dimensions
Overall: 7 1/4 × 5 1/4 in. (18.4 × 13.3 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
British, Worcester
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1927
Accession Number
27.17.10
Art Historical Context
This delicate dish stand, crafted by the Worcester factory around 1760, exemplifies the elegance of early British porcelain production. Made from soft-paste porcelain—a refined, translucent material that mimicked expensive Chinese hard-paste imports—this 7¼ × 5¼-inch piece served as a practical yet ornamental support for serving dishes in affluent 18th-century households. Its petite scale and graceful form reflect the Rococo taste for refined tableware, blending functionality with decorative charm. Worcester, established in 1751, was a pioneering English factory during the porcelain boom, inn...
About the Artist
Worcester factory · 1751–2008
The Worcester porcelain factory, established in 1751 in Worcester, England, by physician Dr. John Wall and apothecary William Davis along with 14 partners, marked the birth of one of Britain's most enduring ceramic enterprises. Investing £4,500 at Warmstry House on the River Severn, the founders drew on contacts with the Bristol porcelain manufactory to develop a novel soft-paste porcelain using s...