{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O121775"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O121775/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK4456/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK4456/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BK4456","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O121775/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O121775","accessionNumber":"1978-1855","objectType":"Soup plate","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"In 1708 a method of producing porcelain was discovered in Germany and, under noble patronage, a porcelain factory was established at Meissen near Dresden. The Meissen factory specialised in producing high quality tableware. In particular, they made pieces associated with the ‘exotic’ new food and drink stuffs entering Europe from Asia, the Americas and West Indies, which increasingly graced the tables of fashionable and wealthy homes. \nThis plate was made towards the end of the period (1774-1814) when the Italian born Camillo Marcolini was director of the Meissen factory and attempting to restore its fortunes, which had declined during and after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). The decoration is in the Egyptian classical style, with a canopic (burial) vase in the centre, against a 'lapis-lazuli' ground copied from Sèvres porcelain, and classical amphorae and ewers against the solid blue ground of the border, reminiscent of Roman wall-painting.  In the late-18th and early-19th centuries increased travel and exploration during the Napoleonic Wars and archaeological discoveries, at sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, led to a revival of interest in ancient and classical decoration.","physicalDescription":"The decoration is in the Egyptian classical style, with a canopic (burial) vase in the centre, against a 'lapis-lazuli' ground copied from Sèvres, and classical amphorae and ewers against the solid blue ground of the border, reminiscent of Roman wall-painting.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Meissen porcelain factory","id":"A9173"},"association":{"text":"manufacturer","id":"x33306"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"hard paste porcelain","id":"AAT10663"}],"techniques":[{"text":"enamelled","id":"x30139"},{"text":"gilded","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Hard-paste porcelain, enamelled and gilded","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Porcelain","id":"THES48907"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[{"text":"Neo-classicism","id":"x38958"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2006BK4456"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"1","id":"THES263059"},"free":"","case":"CA7","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Soup plate","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Meissen","id":"x35076"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1800-1810","earliest":"1795-01-01","latest":"1810-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"22.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Factory mark, in blue - crossed swords with a star","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"Impressed marks - '31', '4' and 'B'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Formerly in the collection of the British politician and collector Ralph Bernal (c.1783 - 1854). This plate was bought by the South Kensington Museum from the Bernal Sale at Christie's 5 March - 30 April 1855.\r\n\n<u>Provenance</u>\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Soup plate; Germany (Meissen); made by the Meissen porcelain factory; decorated in Egyptian classical style; ca. 1800-1810","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The Age of Neo-classicism : the fourteenth exhibition of the Council of Europe : the Royal Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 9 September-19 November 1972. \r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37 ","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"vases","id":"AAT132254"},{"text":"ewers","id":"AAT45666"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Label for 'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900', Gallery 101, de-canted March 2017:\n\n'3\nSoup Plate with Classical Decoration\n1800-10\n\nDuring the directorship of Camillo Marcolini, Maissen introduced innovative designs in the Neo-classical style. In this plate the burial urn in the centre is Egyptian, but the amphorae and leafy swags in the border come from ancient Roman wall decoration. The blue background, painted to imitate lapis lazuli, is an idea borrowed from the French Sèvres factory.\n\nGerman, Meissen; designed and manufactured in the Meissen porcelain factory \nHard-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilt\n\nMuseum no. 1978-1855'","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"Soup plate\r\nAbout 1800-10\r\n\r\nThis soup plate is decorated with both ancient Egyptian and Roman features. The motif in the centre is an Egyptian canopic vase. It is painted against a ground intended to look like lapis lazuli, a technique that the Meissen factory copied from Sèvres porcelain. The border pattern is made up of classical amphorae and ewers reminiscent of Roman wall painting.\r\n\r\nGermany (Dresden)\r\nMade at the Meissen factory\r\nPorcelain painted in enamels and gilded\r\n","date":{"text":"09/12/2015","earliest":"2015-12-09","latest":"2015-12-09"}},{"text":"'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'\r\n\r\nFormerly in the Bernal Collection, this plate was made during the period (1774-1814) when the Italian born Camillo Marcolini was director of the Meissen factory and attempting to restore its fortunes, which had declined during and after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). The decoration is in the Egyptian classical style, with a canopic (burial) vase in the centre, against a 'lapis-lazuli' ground copied from Sèvres, and classical amphorae and ewers against the solid blue ground of the border, reminiscent of Roman wall-painting.","date":{"text":"1987-2006","earliest":"1987-01-01","latest":"2006-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["1978-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"1978","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"","id":""},"number":""}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN1936","2019LW2385"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-03-09","availableToBook":false}}