Brilliant porcelain across the Pacific Ocean – Old Noritake: Beauty Bridging East & West

[Inscription] M-Japan Mark

[Year of Manufacture]  1921-1941 (approx.)

When women of royalty and the aristocracy came to be drawn as genre paintings, they frequently began to appear on ceramics as well. Japanese export porcelain makers started importing transfer paper from Germany and applied these female images to export porcelains of the Meiji Era (1868 – 1912). Many of these images were based on Rococo era paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau or François Boucher. 

Boucher’s paintings of Madame de Pompadour (1721 – 1764) are also well-known original pictures of a woman known for having devoted herself to unfettered luxury as royal mistress to King Louis XV (1710 – 1774) of France’s Bourbon Dynasty. This lusterware plate is from the Art Deco period and depicts Madame de Pompadour. Her colorful dress and hair are decorated with flowers befitting the image of Madame de Pompadour.