Sold Ceramics - Sold Chine de commande - Western Subjects 1680-1800 - Western Designers -

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Picart, Bernard (1673-1733)

Object 2011515

Spoon or leak tray

China

c.1745

Height 18 mm (0.71 inch), dimensions 133 mm (5.24 inch) x 83 mm (3.27 inch), weight 59 grams (2.08 ounce (oz.))

Spoon or leak tray with hexagonal ribbed sides and a lobed rim with a smooth unglazed base. Polychrome decorated in various overglaze enamels, black and gold with a European couple in a landscape of trees with buildings on the far shore and a boat to the left. The man is poised to pour wine from a bottle into a cup the woman is holding in her hand, in her other hand she is holding a staff. The central decoration is flanked by two orchids (Cymbidium virescens). On the rim a blue enamel border with leaves in gold.

This design is directly copied from an engraving by Bernard Picart (1673-1733), published in 1708, entitled 'Les Pèlerins de l'île de Cythère' (The Pilgrims of the Isle of Cythera).

On the original engraving the woman is holding a shell as a cup for the wine and she is wearing a tablet with a human figure on her girdle. In front of the couple and pointing the way toward a boat at the watter's edge is a winged amor with a stave and a torch. On this spoon / leak tray, due to it's small size, these details have been left out by the porcelain decorator.