Chine de commande - Western Subjects 1680-1800 - Western Designers - Pronk, Cornelis (1691-1759)

Object 2010313

Saucer

China

1750-1775

Height 17 mm (0.66 inch), diameter of rim 110 mm (4.33 inch), diameter of footring 66 mm (2.60 inch), weight 56 grams (1.97 ounce (oz.))

Saucer on footring, slightly everted rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with a simplified representation of the 'Parasol Lady' after a design by the Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) with a lady besides the water's edge with reeds, gesturing towards two birds on the ground in front of her, and her maid holding an ornate parasol. Round the rim a trellis pattern border with four reserves filled with flower heads. The reverse is undecorated.

Pronk´s the ´Parasol Lady´ desgn became very fashionable and was still in great demand when Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) orders for this type of porcelain declined. Simplified imitations soon appeared on the market made at the artists' initiative, where both early Chinese and Japanese versions were used as models. This saucer is an example of such a late Chinese variant.

Shards of a similar decorated saucer were excavated from the wreck of the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg that ran aground and sunk in 1745 less than a kilometre short of her home port. (Wästefelt et al. 1991, pp. 270-273)