Fruit Basket

This delicate fruit basket is a rare example of early American porcelain, one of only 20 known surviving works by Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris’s American China Manufactory. Porcelain, a kind of ceramic, originated in China, where its formula was a heavily guarded secret; it eventually emerged as a prized material in global luxury goods because of its luminosity and strength. American manufacturers were slow to develop porcelain wares because of the potential hazards of the materials and equipment, as well as a lack of skilled craftspeople, and foreign price competition. Even though the American China Manufactory was short-lived, this basket represents the early advancements of this industry in the American colonies.