Description: Plate, porcelain, China, c.1730-50, repaired and marked on reverse in lustre glaze ‘Coombs Qn St Bristol 1811′.

(Click to enlarge)

Commentary:
This porcelain plate was made in China in about 1730-50 for export to the west. The design borrows from designs of Japanese porcelain and is known in the trade as ‘Chinese Imari’.  We have proof that this example with old damage, was in use in the Bristol area in the early 19th century. On the reverse of the plate, a repairer, Edward Coombs of Queen Street, has signed his repair ‘Coombs Qn St Bristol 1811′.

Coombs worked as a ‘China Burner’, mending his customers’ precious porcelain items by dipping broken parts in glaze and re-firing them, from as early as 1781 until his death in 1821 when his wife and daughter continued the business. This plate is the latest dated piece repaired by Coombs in the Bristol collection. Coincidentally, the design on the front is identical to those on a pair of plates which were donated to Bristol in 2003 as part of the J.O.Thompson bequest of Chinese export porcelain and paintings through the Art Fund (transported to Bristol with the generous assistance of the Friends).

This item is included in the current ‘What’s New?’ exhibition in the Watercolour Gallery