Chinese famille verte wall urn and cover, Kangxi (1662-1722)

Chinese famille verte wall urn and cover, Kangxi (1662-1722), of pear-shape with a moulded lion-mask spout, decorated with ladies in conversation, with a boy attendant, on a terrace in front of pavilions, being watched on the far side of the courtyard by a man on a balcony, below a ruyi-cloud collar to the shoulder and a wide trellis-pattern band to the rim enclosing florets, the cover with bands of stylised flaming-leaf panels, cracked ice and floral sprays in four registers.

A similarly decorated example is in the collection of the National Trust (Mompesson House, Wiltshire) Collection, see NT 723472. Wall fountains of this kind were clearly based upon a European prototype; although cisterns with this distinctive tiered cover do not appear to have been made with matching basins.

Possibly as they did not therefore fulfil their function as European style wall fountains and basins, it appears that the more recognizable style of fountain, with a back-plate and a simpler domed flat-backed cover in better proportion to the body and a matching basin, are of a slightly later date and this example of an earlier one.

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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