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Inkstand (Encrier) (Other overall view without candles)

Unknown

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States

From the mid-1600s onward, Europeans began to import larger quantities of porcelain from China and Japan. In the 1700s, dealers of luxury goods called marchands-merciers purchased the porcelain at auction or from the East India companies and passed it to metalworkers to decorate. The porcelain was often modified to take gilt bronze mounts, sometimes creating completely new forms.

A marchand-mercier commissioned French craftsmen to add a lacquered base and gilt bronze mounts to Chinese porcelain wine cups and figures, creating this inkstand. The two outer cups contain an inkwell and a sand shaker. The central cup once held a sponge for wiping the pen nib. In the 1700s and earlier, writers sprinkled sand on wet ink to speed drying.

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  • Title: Inkstand (Encrier) (Other overall view without candles)
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date Created: porcelain early 1700s–before 1750; lacquer early 1700s–about 1750; mount about 1750
  • Location Created: probably Paris, France; Jingdezhen, China; Dehua, China; probably Okinawa, Japan
  • Physical Dimensions: 20.3 × 35.6 × 26.7 cm (8 × 14 × 10 1/2 in.)
  • Type: Inkstand
  • External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
  • Medium: Hard- and soft-paste porcelain; coral tree wood with Asian lacquer; gilt-bronze mounts
  • Terms of Use: Open Content
  • Number: 76.DI.12
  • Culture: Chinese; probably Japanese (lacquer); French
  • Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Creator Display Name: Unknown
  • Classification: Decorative Art (Art Genre)
The J. Paul Getty Museum

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