Order of the Cincinnati Chinese Export Porcelain Covered Bowl

Description:

Order of the Cincinnati Chinese Export Porcelain Covered Bowl, c. 1790, from the service of Samuel Shaw of Massachusetts, round deep bowl with entwined handles, the cover topped with a gilt fruit sprig finial, both sides of the bowl decorated with a polychrome enamel and gilt order of the Cincinnati cipher over the iron-red and gilt initials "SS" flanked by grisaille and gilt flower sprigs, wave pattern rim border, (minor hairline, gilt wear),ht. 5, bowl dia. 5 3/4, dia. from handle to handle 7 1/2 in.

Note: Samuel Shaw was one of the founding members of the Society of Cincinnati. He was born in Boston in 1754, the son of a prosperous Boston merchant. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, but left early to work in the counting-house, and when the struggle between the colonies and England began and he came of age, served in the army as lieutenant of Artillery, and continued his service until the close of the war. After the war he was a successful merchant in the China trade and lived there for many years. Shaw married Hannah Phillips in 1792, but was not married long before he died at sea from a liver disease he contracted in Bombay, as he was returning home to his expectant wife in 1794.


Estimate $2,000-3,000

2 in. faint hairline from rim to one handle terminal, gilt wear.

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