Sugar Bowl with Cover
Chinese export porcelain
1790–1800
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, enamels, and gilding
Dimensions
14 × 14.9 × 11.3 cm (5 1/2 × 5 7/8 × 4 7/16 in.)
Classification
sugar bowl
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
7768
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This sugar bowl, decorated with an American sailing vessel, is among the many examples of souvenir ware that captains and trade merchants special ordered from the porcelain shops in Canton to commemorate their journeys. The decoration on these pieces is of a more personal character than the average stock porcelain. Motifs for commemorative ware were most often copied from illustrations on mercantile and cargo documentation and thus probably bore little resemblance to the actual vessels.