Chinese Canton enamel shell basin and ewer, mid 18th century

Chinese Canton enamel shell basin and ewer, mid-18th century, the ewer imitating European metal shapes with distinctive helmet spout and looped handle, on a domed and waisted foot, brightly enamelled in fine famille rose palette with peonies and scrolling foliage, two large pendant ruyi heads at the ewer's rim and alternating shaped bands of cracked ice and scrolling foliage to the foot, the scallop shell-shaped basin with fluted panels and standing on three conical feet, decorated overall with a dense flower meander and entwined peonies within scrolling foliate borders in pinks, blues and greens radiating from central ruyi shaped panels. Diameter of basin: 14 3/4in. (37.5cm.).

A very similar enamel ewer and basin from the J.A. Lloyd Hyde Collection is illustrated in the Chinese Painted Enamels,The China Institute in America, 1969/70, Exhibition Catalogue, no. 8 where it is suggested that this shape is copying 17th century Portuguese silver originals. Cf. Howard and Ayers, China for the West, op. cit., pl. 125, for an example of this shape in porcelain, dated 1720-1725 in the Mottahedeh collection

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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