Fruit basket

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.

The American China Manufactory was the first and only successful porcelain factory in the colonies. Erected in Philadelphia with great fanfare, Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris's factory produced its first batch in late 1770. At the time, it appeared to have a bright future: the rebellious Nonimportation Agreements of the 1760s encouraged American manufactures to supplant British imports, such prominent Philadelphia intellectuals as Benjamin Franklin supported the scientific effort to produce the elusive luxury goods, and skilled porcelain workers were successfully recruited from overseas.The American China Manufactory produced all sorts of tablewares, from plates and tea cups to more ambitious forms, such as this pierced fruit basket. Its products were nearly identical to those of English factories in Bow and Lowestoft in both form and decoration, but the American company's porcelains did not maintain a consistent high quality, often varying in materials and execution. For example, the surface of this basket has a less desirable, gritty texture from impurities in the glaze, and the underglaze blue decoration is blurred on the rim and side walls. Ironically, despite the factory's patriotic origins, this basket was owned by Daniel Whitehead, a Philadelphia loyalist who later had to forfeit his property during the Revolution; he retained the basket, however, and it descended in his family until it was acquired by the Museum. It is one of only twenty or so American China Manufactory works known to survive today.Although Bonnin and Morris's porcelain adorned the most fashionable Philadelphia tables, their 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. This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.