Saucer

Description

This porcelain saucer for a tea, coffee, or chocolate cup, portrays in delicately painted in sepia tones, the portrait of an indigenous woman holding a spear(?), wearing a feathered headdress and clad in a draped, striped cloth. Palm trees appear in the distance beyond a grassy field. The figure almost certainly was intended to represent America and the original set from which the saucer came probably also displayed other references to The Four Continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. The concept of The Four Continents is an early one, dating at least back to the late 1400s. Imagery allegorical of such themes has been codified over time. Typically, the Continents were represented by stylized and imagined humans, usually women or children. Visual references to The Continents can be problematic in terms of interpretation, today. The Winterthur collection includes over fifty objects portraying allegories of one or more of the Continents. These range from window hangings and prints to ornament and figural ceramics.