Jiaqing Era, circa 1800-10 American Market (destination Providence, Rhode Island). Beautiful over glaze blue enameled and gilded drape and shield within underglaze blue spearhead and lattice outer borders, 9 1/2 in. Diam.
Providence, Rhode Island was among the centers of the American China Trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As compared to either New York or Boston at that time, Providence had a larger and wealthier merchant class and, accordingly, the capital to command ships to make the lengthy round trip to Canton and back. There is much firsthand evidence to support a Providence-China route that was followed until the early 1840s. As Mudge writes, "the names Brown and Carrington predominate among the Providence shippers." The four Brown brothers maintained a shipping partnership until 1774 and then each went his respective separate way. The next Brown generation, including Nicholas Brown, Jr., was the most active in the China trade. Brown, Jr., became so successful that he founded Brown University, which institution is in the Ivy League. Brown, Jr., also particularly loved his wife, Hope, and ordered for her a dinner service, circa 1795, from which these items derived. These items likely made the journey from Canton to Providence on Nicholas Brown's joint venture's (with Thomas Ives) vessel, Ann and Hope, named after the wives of Messrs. Brown and Ives. This particular service since descended through the family.