Rose Medallion cup with lid. For a second photo, click here
Rose Medallion cup with lid. For a second photo, click
here
A resident of Corrales writes:
My grandmother kept a detailed journal during her Grand Tour of the Far East in 1897. On February 25 of that year, she wrote from Shanghai, China: "Bought some fascinating dishes with Chinese patterns." Circumstantial evidence, of course, but the only clue to the exact provenance of the Rose Medallion china in my dining room. According to family history, the dishes and other Chinese objets d'art were shipped home to Boston.
I cannot trace their wanderings between then and now. In 1898, while on a second tour of the East, my grandmother met my grandfather, an Englishman employed by an import-export firm in Calcutta. She married him and set up housekeeping in that city. Did all the treasures back in Boston follow? I doubt it. Within a year she died in chidlbirth. Grandfather returned to Yorkshire, and died a few years later. Their household furnishings were probably scattered about.
I think that the porcelain from the 1897 tour stayed in my great-grandmother's home in upstate New York. There she raised her orphaned grandson. Later, when my parents married, the Roaring Twenties were in full swing, and their lifestyle never recovered. Europe, Brazil, New York, Florida; divorces, remarriages. The mementos were stored away, somewhere. Many years later, my mother opened a chest full of wonderful things—china, silver, brocades, paintings on rice paper, embroidery, ivory carvings. My sister and I divided them between us.
The Rose Medallion dishes and serving pieces are now in a lighted display case.
I have never used them. Just seeing them out in the light at last is pleasure
enough.
Rose Medallion serving dish. For a second photo, click
here
The Bai Chai (bok choy) plate shown below—one of four that now belong to the writer's daughter—came with the Rose Medallion china. It is decorated with Chinese cabbage and butterflies. In China, bok choy is sometimes used as a symbol of unexpected good fortune.
Bai chai plate. For a second photo, click
here
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Page last revised on February 20, 2014.
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