Cane Handle (Poignée de canne) (c. 1745): Art, History and Details

Cane Handle (Poignée de canne) (c. 1745) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the first half of the 18th century, porcelain cane handles were widely produced by the Saint-Cloud porcelain factory. This cane handle, molded in the shape of the head and torso of an Asian man, is representative of the popularity of chinoiserie, European designs that attempted to imitate the art, culture, and techniques of China and Japan.

Object facts

• Title: Cane Handle (Poignée de canne)
• Date: c. 1745
• Creator attribution: Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French)
• Culture: France, Saint Cloud, 18th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1964.514

A detail from the museum

The colorful overglaze enamel that decorates this cane handle was typical of Japanese Kakiemon decoration.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. LII (November 1965).
• Casanova, Maria Letizia. Le porcellane francesi nei Musei di Napoli. Napoli: Di Mauro Editore, 1974.
• Dike, Catherine, and Guy Bezzaz. La canne, objet d'art. Paris: Editions de l'Amateur, 1988.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.