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Serving Dish - Maker Unknown

Armorial of Holburne family and landscape scenes, c.1749 (Qianlong dynasty)

One of the greatest luxuries in 18th century Europe was to have a customized dinner service in hand-painted Chinese porcelain, with your own coat of arms on it. This dish is part of the Holburne Family Service which was ordered in about 1745 by Admiral Francis Holburne, the collector William Holburne's grandfather, (possibly for his marriage) and has come down in the family ever since.

The scenes on it were also used for other naval families: in the centre is Fort St. George, Madras (home of the East India Company who shipped this porcelain), to the left is Plymouth Sound with the Eddystone lighthouse, and on the right the Pearl River at Canton, symbolizing the journey from East to West. At the top is the Holburne armorial with the motto Decus summum virtus - "the highest glory is virtue".

Hard paste porcelain was invented in China, the combination of two white clays to produce a spectacular ceramic which was white, hard and could be painted in brilliant colours. It was imported into Europe from the 15th century, affecting native ceramics and eventually being copied and manufactured in the West. The clay was mixed together, then shaped and fired once: it was then either decorated under the glaze or glazed and then decorated (giving a much wider range of colours) and fired again. Gilded decoration required another firing.