Armorial openwork chestnut bowl and cover, Late Qianlong, circa 1795

Armorial openwork chestnut bowl and cover, decorated on the exterior with an oval pink ground medallion bearing the arms of Peter van Hemert (1735-1810), mirrored by a portrait medallion of Minerva, beneath a green-ground band of linked spearheads, the body pierced with fretwork beneath a further green-ground gilt jewelled band, all between two double-rope twist handles with iron-red and gilt leaf terminals, the cover with similar bands beneath a moulded iron-red and gilt chrysanthemum flowerhead crown and bud form finial.

10 1/8 inches, 25.7 cm handle to handle, 7 ½ inches, 19 cm high.

Late Qianlong, circa 1795.

• From the collection of Dr Hardouin, Nantes, western France.
   
• A round butter tub and cover from this service is illustrated by Bredo L. Grandjean in Dansk ostindisk Porcelæn, Fig. 79, p. 64; a plate from this service was sold by Sotheby’s London in their auction of Fine Chinese Export Porcelain, The Hervouët Collection, Part II, 3^rd November 1997, lot 917.
   
• A covered chestnut bowl of similar form is illustrated by David S. Howard & John Ayers in China for the West, Volume two, no. 585, p. 565, where the author notes ‘One of the most graceful shapes of functional export porcelain, but seldom displaying in decoration the standard found in its potting. Other armorial bowls of this shape are at Ickworth, in Suffolk, with an elaborately painted pink-scale pattern and a swirling design of gilt leaves and flowers at the base, displaying inside the arms of Lord Harvey after his marriage in 1779. No exact origin for the shape has been identified, but its inspiration is undoubtedly the delicate pierced creamware made in such quantity in Leeds and elsewhere in England in the last quarter of eighteenth century.’

• An armorial example is illustrated by John Goldsmith Phillips in China Trade Porcelain, An Account of Its Historical Background, Manufacture, and Decoration and a Study of the Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, no. 50, p. 129; a blue enamel bordered example is illustrated by David S. Howard in The Choice of the Private Trader, the Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain Illustrated from the Hodroff Collection, no. 146, pp. 138/9; and a Fitzhugh example is illustrated by Herbert, Peter and Nancy Schiffer in Chinese Export Porcelain, Standard Patterns and Forms, 1780-1880, no. 253, p. 92.
   
• The Danish arms are those of Peter van Hemert (1735-1810), who in 1763 was appointed an agent with the Danish Justice Council and took a particular interest in the Asiatic company of Denmark, in which he owned shares that went up four times in value between 1772-81, and in 1776 was appointed Counsellor of State.

Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Condition report

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