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Fruit basket
American China Manufactory ((active 1770–1772) of Gousse Bonnin (about 1741–1780) and George Anthony Morris (1742/5–1773))
1771–72
Object Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Medium/Technique
Soft-paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration
Dimensions
Other: 6.8 x 17.5 cm (2 11/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Frederick Brown Fund
Accession Number1977.621
CollectionsAmericas
The American China Manufactory was the first and only financially successful porcelain factory in the colonies. Opened in Philadelphia with great public fanfare and patriotic sentiment, the factory produced its first wares in late 1770. However, although its porcelain adorned the most fashionable tables, the business venture failed in less than two years. The factory could not compete with the flood of cheap imports that continued to enter American ports-regardless of the patriotic support espoused (but perhaps not practiced) by many.
InscriptionsHandwritten on white label with red border: “Handed down, from Grandmother Gardiner’s family Presumably from the Whitehead family--”
ProvenanceDaniel Whitehead (1751-1792); to Thomas Willett Whitehead (1790-1871); to Annie Whitehead (married Horace G. Richards); to their children, Horace Gordon Richards and Marie Richards; purchased by MFA, 1977.