Record

Chinese porcelain plate with images of Highland soldiers, made for the European market

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Postcard of Chinese porcelain plate with images of Highland soldiers, made for the European market.
000-000-100-220-C
© National Museums Scotland

Chinese porcelain plate with images of Highland soldiers, made for the European market

Chinese plate of hard-paste porcelain, made for export to Europe, decorated with paintings of soldiers of the Black Watch (42nd) Regiment. The paintings are copied from well-known prints, made when men of the regiment were convicted of mutiny in 1743.

Prints of the mutineers were produced across the world, because the kilt and bagpipes fascinated people, and must have been copied by the Chinese artist. Versions of these prints soon appeared linked to the Jacobite cause, although there is nothing to suggest that the mutiny was Jacobite-inspired.

The Black Watch, then known as Sempill's Regiment, had been raised to serve within Britain and the mutiny took place when the regiment was sent to fight abroad.


Record details

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Online ID: 000-000-100-220-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0207: The Thistle at War
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  A.1924.485
Date: 18th century
Material: Ceramic: hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions: 232 mm Dia x 2.5 mm
What: Chinese porcelain plate, 18th century
Subject: Ceramics
Who: Black Watch
Sempill's Regiment
Where: China (place of origin)
Event: Mutiny
Description: Hard-paste porcelain plate decorated in colour with pictures of Highlanders with a bagpipe and a musket, panels of a landscape and flowering branch: Chinese, export ware, Ch'ing Dynasty, 18th century AD.
References:
  • Leiper, Susan Precious cargo Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 1997 
  • Prebble, John Mutiny London: Secker and Warburg, 1975 
Translations:
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