Sold Ceramics - Sold Chine de commande - Western Subjects 1680-1800 - Various Subjects - Outdoor Scenes - Page 1

Object 2012045

Dish

China

c.1700

Height 46 mm (1.81 inch), diameter of rim 268 mm (10.55 inch), diameter of footring 149 mm (5.87 inch), weight 619 grams (21.83 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, panelled sides and undulating rim. Imari decorated in underglaze blue, iron red and gold. In the centre a small house with a tiled terrace and a separate tall chimney to the left flanked by haystacks or bushes, who in turn are flanked by a bamboo and flowering prunus plant. On the sides 16 petal-shaped reserves, four are filled with a chrysanthemum flowerhead on an underglaze blue ground with leafy scroll in gold, the other twelve are filled with flowering plants, flower heads or leafy scrolls. On the exterior wall two flowering peony sprays. Marked on the base with the symbol mark: Lozenge, one of the Eight Precious Symbols, in a double circle, underglaze blue. Also on the base an old rectangular paper price label stating: '1250,-'.

This somewhat puzzling combination of objects can be directly linked to a specific design known in the Netherlands as koekoek op ´t huisje or 'cuckoo on the House'. The source of this peculiar design has never been explained. There are a number of variations and the popularity of the design ensured its reordering over a considerable period. (Lunsingh Scheurleer 1966, p.102), (Howard 1994, p.44)

For an identically shaped, sized and decorated dish, please see:

Aziatische ceramiek uit vijf eeuwen, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, exhibition catalogue of the J.M. van Diepen Collection, Fraeylemaborg Slochteren, 1977), p.66, cat. 176.

For a smaller, identically shaped and decorated dish, please see:

Aziatische Keramiek en Glas, exhibition catalogue of the J.M. van Diepen collection, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Fraeylemaborg Slochteren, Groningen, 1982), p.32, cat. 91.

For other variations of the design, please see;

The cargo of the famous shipwreck ‘Ca Mau’, dated c. 1725, also contained seven teacups and thirty-two saucers with the ‘Koekoek op ’t huisje’ pattern. They were sold as the “Garden Pavilion“ pattern and described as “decorated with a small pavilion, its chimney smoking, flanked by birds perched on a giant column and bush, the rim with a stylised laurel pattern border“. Sotheby's adds that the “pattern exists in early Meissen”. The distinctive bundle of asters of the pattern are also painted on cups and saucers dated c.1695, recovered off the Vung Tau peninsula from the wreck of a Chinese vessel sailing to Batavia. (Howard 1994, p.44), (Amsterdam 2007, p.124, lots 461-462)

For the shipwreck examples, please see:

However, on this dish a key detail is conspicuously absent: the two cuckoos who are usually placed either on the roof of the cottage or in the air to the left and right. Another commonly seen detail, two large asters on stems and/or a bundle of asters in the middle, here seem to be replaced by a bamboo and prunus.

Finally, another unusual feature of this dish is that the design is painted in Imari colours instead of underglaze blue, which is extremely rare.

Condition: Some firing flaws to the centre and some glaze rough spots to the rm.

References:

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1966, cat. 141

Frank 1969, p.76

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1974, cat. 147

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1977, cat. 176

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1982, cat. 91

Hervouët 1986, cat. 10.7

Hartog 1990, cat. 98

Davison 1994, cat. 33

Howard 1994, cat. 10

Jörg & Flecker 2001, cat. 39/39A

Amsterdam 2007, lot 461-462

Emden 2015/1, cat. 13

Price: Sold.