Sold Ceramics - Sold Soft-paste / Steatitic / Pâte tendre 1700-1800

Objects 2010215C/D

A pair of miniature "doll's house" vases

China

Soft-paste or Steatitic Porcelain (pâte tendre)

c.1700

Both vases; height 45 mm (1.77 inch), diameter 20 mm (0.79 inch), diameter of mouthrim 12 mm (0.47 inch), diameter of footring 13 mm (0.51 inch)

A pair of miniature "doll's house" vases on footrings. Decorated in underglaze blue. On all sides very precisely decorated with: a lady walking near a shore, a man fishing, a lady near a shore and a man with a walking cane walking in a landscape. On the waist a zig-zag lines pattern border and on the neck two pine tree branches. Around the rim a zig-zag lines pattern border.

At the beginning of the 18th century, there was a fashion among wealthy Dutch ladies to have models made on the scale of a house, the so called "doll's houses". The rooms of these doll's houses were furnished with miniature pieces of porcelain, furniture, paintings, upholstery and all other sorts of objects that would have belonged to the interior of a wealthy home. These doll's houses were very costly and certainly not meant for children to play with but were proudly displayed for friends and visitors and regarded as extremely luxurious items - counterparts of the cabinets of curiosities that were a fashionable hobby of rich men. Only a few of these doll's houses have been preserved. One example can be found in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague showing an 18th century room with porcelain miniatures in cupboards and on brackets along the wall. In reality the majority of these "miniature doll's house vases" would have been part of the interior. A good example of an authentic porcelain room is the famous cabinet in Pommersfelden Castle, Germany, where groups of pieces on brackets are surrounded by these miniature vases lining the borders of the consoles. (Jörg & Flecker 2001, pp.50-51)

Condition: Both perfect.

References:

Oort & Kater 1982, p.155

Jörg & Van Campen 1997, cat. 119

Jörg & Flecker 2001, pp.50-52

Sargent 2012, p.304

Price: Sold.