Sold Ceramics - Sold Famille Verte wares 1680-1725 - Flowers, Animals and Long Elizas - Page 1

Object 2012052

Dish

China

c.1720

Height 40 mm (1.57 inch), diameter of rim 220 mm (8.66 inch), diameter of footring 100 mm (3.94 inch), weight 315 grams (11.11 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, flat, underglaze brown-edged, rim (jia mangkou). Decorated in underglaze blue, various famille verte enamels and gold. In the centre a vase on a stand richly filled with flowering chrysanthemum, pine and peony on a fenced terrace surrounded by a border with six cartouches decorated with a butterfly alternating with a chrysanthemum flower head. The sides and rim with three shaped panels and three flowering chrysanthemums reserved on a underglaze blue ground with scrollwork in gold. The panels are filled with flowering plants, rocks, birds or a butterfly. On the reverse rim a diaper-pattern border with flower heads and six cartouches filled with a butterfly, a fish or a shrimp; on the sides three flower sprays.

While making these dishes, the Chinese potters must have been clearly inspired by Japanese Imari examples, similarities in design and technique are obvious. A large Japanese dish of this pattern is in the Museum Boymans - van Beuningen, Rotterdam. The Chinese dishes were made in various sizes, a large, 534 mm (21.02 inch), dish is in the Dresden collection of August the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. (Amsterdam 1972. p.35, cat. 111), (Howard & Ayers 1978, vol. 1, pp.144-145)

The design is known as the 'Stanislaw pattern', named after the Polish King Stanilas Augustus Poniatowsky (r.1764-1795) who, in 1776, had earthenware copies made by the Belvedere factory in Warsaw as a present to Abdul Hamid I, Sultan of Turkey. A large part of it remains in the Topkapi Sary Museum, for this Polish earthenware copy, please see:

Porcelain for Palaces. The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750, (J. Ayers, O. Impey & J.V.G. Mallet, Oriental Ceramic Society & The British Museum, London 1990), p.253, cat. 285.
A game of bowls, sale catalogue Cohen & Cohen, London 2014, p.27, cat 20

For identically shaped and decorated Japanese (c.1700) and Meissen (c.1725-30) dishes, please see:

A game of bowls, sale catalogue Cohen & Cohen, London 2014, p.27, cat 20

Jörg suggests that the design served as a model for close copies in Polish earthenware, made for the Polish King Stanislaw II Poniatowsky (r.1764-1795) as additions to his set of Chinese originals. One of these copied earthenware dishes from the Poniatowsky service is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In the late 18th century the design was also copied by the Cozzi factory in Italy. (Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, cat. 285), (Jörg 2011/2, p.52)

The vase filled with various kinds of flowers, derives from Chinese Kraak porcelain and symbolises riches and abundance. It is seen as an attribute of Lan Caihe, one of the "Eight Daoist Immortals" and patron of gardeners It was a highly popular motif, appearing on many Jingdezhen underglaze blue and polychrome porcelains. (Pinto de Matos 1996, p.273), (Jörg 2011/2, p.60)

For identically decorated dishes, please see:

China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection, (D.S. Howard & J. Ayers, Philip Wilson Publishers for Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, London 1978), vol. 1, pp.144-145, cat. 126.
Important Chinese Export Porcelain from the Mottahedeh Collection, (Sotheby's, New York, Wednesday, January 30, 1985), lot 75.
Porzellan aus China und Japan. Die Porzellangalerie der Landgrafen von Hessen-Kassel, (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel, Berlin 1990), p.356, cat. 139a-d.
Famille Verte, Chinese Porcelain in Green Enamels, (C.J.A. Jörg, Schoten, 2011), p.52, cat. 47.
Collecting Chinese and Japanese Porcelain in Pre-Revolutionary Paris, (S. Castelluccio, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2013), p.88 Fig. 64.
A game of bowls, sale catalogue Cohen & Cohen, London 2014, p.27, cat.20..
Sold Ceramics - Sold Famille Verte wares 1680-1725 - Animals, Flowers, and Long Elizas - Object 2011371.

Condition: Some wear to the golden decoration and some firing flaws to the base.

References:

Amsterdam 1972. cat.111

Howard & Ayers 1978, vol. 1, cat. 126

New York 1985, lot 75

Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, cat. 285

Kassel 1990, cat. 139a-d

Pinto de Matos 1996, p.273

Jörg 2011/2, cat. 47

Sargent 2012, p.183

Castelluccio 2013, Fig. 64

London 2014, cat 20

Price: Sold.