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Shaving dish SM B10. ©Sir John Soane's Museum. Photo: Lewis Bush.
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Shaving dish

c.1750

China

Hard-paste porcelain

Museum number: B10

On display: Bath Room (pre-booked tours only)
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house. For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit

Curatorial note

This barber's basin or shaving dish is decorated in overglaze enamels. In the centre are flowers and flowering branches. Around the rim there is floral decoration each side of the neck indent and at the top a vignette showing a group of seated figures (a woman between two priests(?) with shaven heads except for a single tuft of hair on the top of the head - or perhaps this might be the top of a 'queue' or Chinese pigtail) flanked by low tables with potted plants on them.

Although this bowl is Chinese it is probably copied from examples in English deftware of the first half of the 18th century - Chinese copies of English forms were not uncommon. This one is extremely good quality.


Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk