The Magazine Antiques

The American China Manufactory, founded by Gousse Bonnin and George Morris, was the first manufacturer to produce soft-paste porcelain in America. Only nineteen pieces from the firm survive today, making their work extremely valuable and rare.

Despite government imposed taxes on luxury goods imported to the colonies, production costs remained too high for Bonnin and Morris to compete with the prices of English wares and they remained in business for only two years.

The mollusk shell shape of this dish is a classic rococo motif and this piece would have been molded using a real shell.

The design and decoration of this dish was based on English models, including the underglaze blue designs that imitated the landscapes of Chinese porcelain. Underglaze decoration is applied before the final firing of a ceramic body resulting in permanently fixed decoration.

A pickle dish was used to serve pickled fruits and nuts during the dessert course of a meal. Today approximately 5,200,000 pounds of pickles are consumed annually in the United States, or roughly nine pounds per person per year.