Double majoring in art history and philosophy, Eponine Zhou ’21 was awarded the Jameson Fellowship in 2018 to intern at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Bayou Bend Collection, a local house museum for American decorative arts and paintings. Her experience at the Bayou Bend sparked her interest in American art, and her research there led her to writing an article entitled, “A Hong Bowl (c. 1770) at Bayou Bend: A New Identification of the Views,” which was published in the American Ceramic Circle Fall 2019 Newsletter.
Zhou’s paper examines the Hong Bowl in the Bayou Bend Collection and the vibrant views and representations of 18th-century Canton, China depicted on the bowl, and thereby, confirming and illustrating the city as having once been a critical bustling site of international trade.
The Fall 2019 American Ceramic Circle newsletter, with Zhou’s article on pages 10-12, can be viewed online here.
[Fig. 1: Hong Bowl (front view), c. 1770, hard-paste porcelain with enamel and gilding, 6 5/8 x 15 ¾ in. diameter, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Bayou Bend Collection. B.67.1.]
The American Ceramic Circle (ACC) was founded in 1970 as a non-profit educational organization committed to the study and appreciation of ceramics. Its purpose is to promote scholarship and research in the history, use, and preservation of ceramics of all kinds, periods, and origins. The current active membership of approximately four hundred is composed of museum professionals, collectors, institutions, and a limited number of dealers in ceramics.