Plate, Qianlong c.1765, with the arms of Barton of Co.Tipperary, Ireland
A nine inch plate from a service made for Thomas Barton (1695-1780) of Fermanagh and later Grove in County Tipperary, and of Bordeaux.
Thomas Barton left Fermanagh in Ireland to become a merchant in France and settled in Bordeaux in 1725, establishing a wine business there and becoming known as ‘French Tom’ (see portrait). Within twenty years he had become extremely wealthy and the leading exporter of French wines to markets including Ireland, the Low Countries and America. In 1757 he purchased the Grove estates in Tipperary though continued to live in Bordeaux.
His only son William (1723-93) nominally joined the wine business but fell out with his father, being described as ‘an acrimonious character who caused numerous disagreements’, preferring to live in Tipperary where he was well known for fighting duels. Though it is possible the service was made for him, it is less likely than his father.
It was Thomas’s grandson, Hugh Massy Barton, who developed the business, creating the partnership of Barton & Guestier which remains the oldest wine house in Bordeaux today. One of their notable clients was Thomas Jefferson, both while ambassador to France and later as President.
The border design is very unusual on Chinese armorial porcelain and reminiscent of the traditional woven cloth ikats found along the Silk Road of central Asia, among the Uyghur people, and in Northwest China (from where the nomadic Manchus came, founding the Qing dynasty) the resist-dyeing design techniques spreading throughout Southeast Asia. See Newsletter 7 for a comparable example of cloth.
This rim edge is seen on only two other services recorded in Chinese Armorial Porcelain: Skinner (Volume II, p.467) and Chambers (Volume I, p.635). A further service (to be included in Volume III) was made with the arms of Ginkel. All four families are recorded as having financial or trading interests outside of England (Skinner in Bordeaux itself) which may have led to them all being ordered at the same time.
Reference : Howard, David S.; Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume II, p. 467
Condition : Body crack consolidated and two rim chips filled, enamels original and bright
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