A Rare and Important Chinese Export 'Great Seal of the United States' Punch Jug Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1795-1815

One of a pair of jugs descended in the Corey / Swain family, the second of which was sold twice at Christie’s New York, first on May 11, 1981, lot 816 and again on January 24, 1997, lot 217. A third jug of this exact design is in the Winterthur Museum, Delaware, accession number 1961.0665 A, B. These three jugs aside, this unusual eagle design also appears on several mugs, also in the Winterthur Museum, and a pair of goblets in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, illustrated in Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, New York, 1986, p. 203, fig. 325. The unusual design with a complex sunburst above the eagle is identical to, and is perhaps taken from, a design on the certificate of ownership of the ship Elizabeth, dated February 4, 1804, in the collection of the New York Public Library, illustrated by Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain for the American Trade, East Brunswick, 1979, p. 190, fig. 85. 

The present jug, when sold at Replica Shoes ’s in 1984, was accompanied by a note, transcribed in the footnote to the lot, but no longer present, which stated that the pair of jugs was purchased in Philadelphia at a sale of the effects of General (George) Washington. Letitia Roberts, in her extensive footnote to the lot, attempted to establish the veracity of this provenance, without success.