Now & Then

NOW & THEN OR

CROUCHING LEOPARDS, HIDDEN DRAGONFLIES

(Asian art in London logo)

3th - 12th November 2005

Written and researched by WILLIAM MOTLEY

COHEN & COHEN 101B Kensington Church Street, London W8 7LN Tel: (020) 7727 7677 Fax: (020) 7229 9653 Email: info@cohenandcohen.co.uk Website: www.cohenandcohen.co.uk

© Cohen & Cohen 2005 Published October 2005 ISBN 0 9537185 6 6

Published by Cohen & Cohen Photographs by Mike Bruce, Gate Studios Printed and bound by Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon

FOREWORD For the first time in the history of the company we are showing a collection of contemporary ceramics together with our annual exhibition of Chinese export.

We met Cliff Lee in New York early this year and were so taken with his work that it was inevitable we had to show it in London. His control of the medium is exquisite and whether it is body, glaze or incised decoration Cliff is satisfied with nothing less than perfection.

Although well known and enthusiastically collected in the USA by both museums and private collectors, Cliff's porcelains have never before been shown in Europe. Cliff is responsible for the Now section of this year's exhibition.

Although the title for this year's exhibition came about from the obvious combination of old and new, two themes developed during the research on this year's selection of export wares, these being the themes of immortality and historical resonance. The theme of immortality is demonstrated in the Chinese maiden and the pair of monkey ewers both holding the peaches that conferred immortality on those that ate them and recurs in the models of the cranes: ‘The aerial coursers of the Immortals’.

Historical stories that resonate today are found in the subjects of a fine famille verte rouleau vase and the London bowl, superbly decorated with scenes of The London Foundling Hospital and Vauxhall Gardens.

This year's exhibition is particularly strong on animal and figural groups and on large decorative pieces of unusual quality. Special mention must, of course, be made of the massive pair of crouching leopards which are the pinnacle of the porcelain sculptor's art, while the pair of court ladies standing on lotus leaves show exceptional quality of enamelling. Also of note for the quality of decoration are the Chinese Imari soldier vases, the pair of famille rose jardinières and the massive famille rose charger depicting a deer hunt. As usual there are a number of armorial pieces, those with the arms of Verney with Heath in pretence and of Yorke impaling Cocks having particularly interesting family histories.

The massive and spectacular Monteith also has a fascinating history having been acquired from Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent in the 1950s and is of a size and type often associated with the Royal houses of Europe.

Thanks, as ever, are due to Will Motley for his painstaking research and the writing of the catalogue, ably assisted by Viktoria Westin who also put together the Now section. Thanks are also due to Ni Yi-Bin, Katarina Grant of the Foundling Museum, Kee Il Choi Jr, Martyn Gregory, Jasper Jennings at Grosvenor Prints and David Coke, FSA, who have helped track various details. Photography is

by Mike Bruce of Gate Studios.

Michael & Ewa Cohen

Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats - all human life is there.

Henry James

Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t.

Lord Raglan

1.

A PAIR OF MONKEY EWERS Kangxi, circa 1700 Dutch Market Height: 5 ½ inches (14 cm) An extremely rare pair of biscuit porcelain ewers in the form of monkeys holding a peach, decorated in yellow, green and aubergine glazes.

Wine ewers are known in various animal forms including crayfish, carp, deer, Buddhist lions, frogs and ducks but monkeys are rare. A similar ewer is recorded in the porcelain collection of Augustus the Strong at Dresden. The Monkey here is the Golden Brown Monkey of Szechwan, whose skin was reserved strictly for Imperial use. The monkey traditionally has control of hobgoblins and witches and was often worshipped by sick people to drive them away.

These figures represent Sun Wukong or the Monkey King, one of Chinese Literature’s most famous and popular characters. He appears in a Ming dynasty novel The Journey to the West, by Wu Chengen (1500-1582) that includes the exploits of a real Taoist priest in the Tang dynasty, Xuanzang (602-664) who travelled to India to bring back the writings of Buddha.

The Monkey King was hatched from a magical rock egg which made him very strong and invulnerable to injury. He travelled from the Mountain of Fruit and

Flowers through the Water Curtain to set up his Kingdom on Earth. However he realised that this meant he was destined to die like other mortals. So he set out to achieve immortality and began by seeking out the Book of the Dead and deleting his name. He resisted attempts to control him from Heaven and then went there to demand the title Great Sage, which he was granted in order to keep him away from Earth.

He stayed in Heaven and caused trouble there, famously disrupting the Peach Banquet in the Jade Emperor’s garden. This Banquet was made for the Eight Daoist Immortals to attend and renew their Immortality by eating the peaches which had taken three thousand years to ripen. The Monkey King ate these peaches and then drank the Elixir of Life which had been made by Lao Tsu for the Cinnabar Banquet. Thus he achieved his goal of immortality which proved useful as he was sentenced

by Lao Tsu to be cut into ten thousand pieces. When this was unsuccessful he was burnt by the Fire Stars and hit with thunderbolts, all to no avail. Lao Tsu then heated him in the Crucible of the Eight Trigrams for 49 days which merely made his eyes red and he flew into a destructive rage. Eventually Buddha tricked him and banished him to Earth to learn humility. After five hundred years he was allowed to redeem himself by accompanying a Holy Man on a journey to the West.

REFERENCES: SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures in the Peabody Museum, p80, No 31 A Kangxi winepot of a monkey holding a peach and an illustration of a Staffordshire salt glazed teapot of similar form, dating to 1745.

2.

A PAIR OF IMARI SOLDIER VASES & COVERS Kangxi, circa 1690 European Market Height: 45 1/2 inches (115.5cm) A massive pair of soldier vases of baluster form, each decorated in the 'Chinese Imari' palette of underglaze blue, overglaze rouge de fer and gilt, with tiger-hunting scenes in a naturalistic landscape, the shoulder with lappets of scrolling chrysanthemum, the neck with several borders of trellis diaper, scrolling peony, waveform and precious objects in panels reserved on a cell diaper, the footrim with rectangular lappets containing flowers. The covers have a simple frieze of hunting scenes and the later replacement knops are Dogs of Fo in giltwood.

The Chinese Imari palette copied Japanese porcelains exported from the port of Imari in the seventeenth century and the Chinese examples are characterised by a more delicate use of washes and more white space as can be seen in these very early examples.

The term 'soldier vase' is supposed to have come about after a trade agreement between two Fredericks: Frederick Augustus I (1670-1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (known as Augustus the Strong) and Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia. Augustus the Strong was a keen collector of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, and went on to found the Meissen porcelain factory.

Frederick Wilhelm's great interest was the military, having a particular penchant for very tall dragoons. In 1717 Augustus traded 600 soldiers of exceptional height to Frederick in exchange for 151 pieces of porcelain from the Oranienburg and Charlottenburg palaces. His group of porcelains included forty-eight blue and white covered vases of over a metre in height, so the term became applied to any large vases and often they were paired either side of doors like sentries. Frederick meanwhile set up a special regiment of dragoons with his new soldiers.

The hunting scenes on these vases also represent a subtle propaganda for the Emperor Kangxi. The Qing dynasty rulers, who conquered China after the Ming collapsed in 1644, originated in the plains of the North where such hunting was an important part of their culture and folklore. So these vases also represent a nostalgic view of life for the new regime in much the same way that foxhunting scenes do for some of the English today!

REFERENCES: ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (1999) Porcelanas e Vidros, a pair of blue and white soldier vases with the arms of D. Francisco José de Sampaio Mello é Castro, the finials as gilt buddhist lions, 134 cm high.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (2000) Porcelana da China, Colecção Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, p60, No 44, a pair in famille rose with phoenix designs, 137 cm high.

FORBES, HA Crosby- (1982) Yang-Ts'ai: The Foreign Colours - Rose Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty, p20, No 10, a pair in famille rose with phoenix, knops as Buddhist lion, 132.5cm high.

ALVES, Jorge et al (1998) Caminhos da Porcelana - Dinastias Ming e Qing, p234, No 58, a pair in famille rose with the Portuguese arms of Sobral, 120cm high.

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p144, a pair of blue and white soldier vases with lion knops, c1730, 105cm high.

JÖRG, CJA (1995) Oösters Porslein, p103, No 46 a pair of soldier vases with armorial decoration.

SCHEURLEER, LUNSINGH DF (1974) Chinese Export Porcelain: Chine de Commande, No 74 a single example in blue and white, with domed covers.

DATING CHINESE IMARI It is generally accepted that porcelain in the Imari palette was not made in China until the early 18th century by which time the VOC had abandoned the Japanese kilns at Arita for the cheaper and more reliable kilns of Jingdejeng. By this time the Imari colours that so intrigued the Dutch had been popularised throughout Europe and Imari porcelains were ordered in great numbers. This pair of soldier vases however suggests a rather earlier date for the first production of Imari wares at Jingdejeng.

Compared to the pair of soldier vases from the Edwards collection we can note several important differences although the basic subject is the same.

Firstly the height, at 116cm including the lion knops is closer to that of the blue and white soldier vases (108cm) in our 2003 catalogue, Soldier Soldier (pp 7-13) than to the Edwards example (128cm). The smaller size being typical of 17th century soldier vases, the larger of 18th century examples. It should be noted here that we now know our conservative dating of the blue and white soldier vases as circa 1700 to be wrong as the examples at Petworth House in Sussex were ordered in the 1660s and probably all the vases of this type of decoration date from the same period.

It can also be seen that these vases have the high broad shoulder, short neck and flared foot of typical 17th century baluster vases and not the sloping shoulder and taller flared top neck of the Edwards vases. The upper and lower borders have much more in common with 17th century blue and white than with 18th century Imari. They are shallower, less elaborate and the upper border of Ruyi heads, in particular, is typical of the formal designs on some 17th century blue and white baluster jars.

The hunting scene occupies a much larger proportion of the vase than on the later example and includes a typical 17th century mountainous landscape that is absent from the later vases.

The designs on the covers on this pair of vases have no borders and only a loose connection with the decoration of the vase, which is typical of examples painted with continuous scenes from Transitional and early Kangxi periods, a typical 18th century cover would carry through border designs from the neck or the foot of the vase.

The most telling feature, however, is the use of the iron red and gilt in the design. Although both colours are used skillfully and artistically, the removal of both from the vases would not affect the integrity of the design and this is something that one would expect from the very earliest Chinese Imari to be produced. The Chinese were very quick to pick up on a trend and as much Japanese Imari was traded in China, the merchants would have been well aware of its burgeoning popularity. The quickest way to produce a competitive product or meet an early order would be by the addition of iron red and gilt to porcelains that were already in production or that had just been made and this appears to be the case with the earliest production of Chinese Imari. This can also be seen on the Chinese Imari garniture from our 2004 catalogue, Bedtime Stories (p6) which should also probably be re-dated to circa 1690.

Michael Cohen

3.

BLACK LACQUER CHEST 16th century Portuguese Market Height: 28 ¾ inches (75.5cm) Width: 36 inches (91.5cm) Depth: 23 ¾ inches (60.3cm) Very rare camphor wood and lacquer chest, the front and cover carved with Portuguese ships at sea and the sides with Chinese figures.

This was very likely made for a Portuguese ship’s captain involved in the very earliest European trade with China.

It exhibits an unusual mix of Christian and Chinese iconography, in particular the ships on the lid which have carved prows in the form of the Christ Child and a horse’s head and on the sides are carved figures of the Buddha standing before a mandorla The carving is fluid and dynamic, especially the stylised waves, and the camphor wood was popular for clothes chests as the smell deterred moths.

29.

FAMILLE VERTE VASE Kangxi, circa 1700 European / Dutch Market Height: 16 inches (40.7cm) A famille verte rouleau vase finely enamelled with a battle scene, depicting military figures on horseback in pursuit of a figure riding a mythological beast surrounded by a cloud of birds.

The scene on this vase shows the Battle of Kunyang, 23 AD, in which the Emperor Wang Mang was defeated by Liu Xiu who went on to establish the Western Han Dynasty as Emperor Guangwu. The story appears in The Romance of the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties.

Wang Mang was reputed to have employed a giant with magical control over wild beasts and is here depicted riding a fierce mythical animal.

Wang Mang was the sole Emperor of the shortlived Xin Dynasty (8-23AD) which interrupted the Han Dynasty. He took advantage of corruption and weakness of the Eastern Han, which had been established in 206BC, and was initially Regent to various young Emperors before declaring the Han finished and himself as Emperor. He is regarded as an enlightened ruler with a Confucian philosophy who attempted land reform and banned slavery. However, he was undermined by popular uprisings following disastrous floods due to the inundation of the Yellow River in 11AD for which he was perceived to have been badly prepared. The Battle at Kunyang is also famous because the forces of Wang Mang numbered over 400,000 and were defeated by Liu Xiu with only about 9,000 soldiers (a ‘David and Goliath’ scenario in Chinese History). Liu Xiu is supposed to have herded many large animals (tigers, leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses) and charged them at Wang Mang’s forces to give the impression of greater strength. This might also explain the animals on this vase.

Among the animals is a very rare depiction of a leopard - they are almost unknown in Qing art - with the exception of the unique pair of modelled leopards that appear next in this catalogue. Leopards are known in art from the Han Dynasty where they are emblematic of cunning and tactics in the face of superior strength - a feature that is consistent with the outcome of the Battle of Kunyang. The painted leopard has an open mouth and a red tongue, a characteristic crouching pose and a line along its back - all features which appear in the modelled leopards.

The painting of this vase is dynamic and assured, with fluid lines and a controlled composition, even in the rockwork and foliage. Such scenes were popular on famille verte porcelains of this period and the military story would have fitted well with the propaganda of the new Qing Dynasty.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

8.

A PAIR OF LEOPARDS Kangxi, circa 1720 Imperial?

Overall length 39 inches (99 cm) Ex Champalimaud Collection.

Ex Florence J Gould Collection By repute sold in Paris in the 1950s from a private collection that also included three tigers.

A large pair of animal figures well modelled in the form of crouching leopards, enamelled in yellow and black over biscuit porcelain, the tails detachable.

These appear to be unique though they compare closely with three recorded models of standing tigers which have similar enamels, detachable tails and are the same size. They would have presented considerable technical difficulties in the firing and the surface of these leopards has circular marks where clay stilts were attached to them to stabilise them in the kilns.

Leopards are rare in Chinese art, first known in the Han dynasty (206BC - 220AD) and appearing occasionally on later bronze and enamelled metalwares. Sometimes their image is associated with a man and the connection between man and leopard seems to be significant in early Chinese mythology.

Leopards, being smaller than tigers, have to rely on cunning and courage in equal measure and this sets an example for man.

They are emblematic of bravery and often appear associated with tigers. In the Ming a leopard was embroidered on the robes of military officials of the third grade. However in the Qing leopards are almost unknown in Chinese art, though tigers occur regularly (see the pair of soldier vases). However the rouleau vase in this catalogue does clearly show a leopard which is surprisingly similar to these models.

These are realistically modelled, possibly from live specimens in the menagerie of the Emperor Kangxi. The menagerie was in the Sanbeizi Gardens in Beijing, named after the Emperor Kangxi’s third son Prince Cheng Yin (it was Kangxi’s fourth son Yongzheng who succeeded him as Emperor).

The two most likely species are the Manchurian Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) and the Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) both found in Northern China from where the rulers of the Qing dynasty originated. They are both now rare because of significant habitat loss. The Chinese leopard population is now around 2,500 and the Manchurian Leopard is less than fifty, most left in the Amur Valley in Russia.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p134, Cat 70, the single tiger.

BIG CATS, EXPORT OR IMPERIAL? Until recently it has been accepted that the group of big cats, comprising this pair of leopards plus a pair of tigers and a single tiger, were made for export but an analysis of the subject matter and their period of manufacture suggests that this is not the case.

Although leopards and tigers have no particular cultural relevance to Europe where the lion has always been the main source of fascination, both leopards and tigers are important in Chinese mythology and both were native to China.

The philosopher Liezi of the Warring States period (206 BC-25 AD) postulated the genealogy that the leopard was the ancestor of the horse which in turn procreated man and the tiger is often represented in Chinese mythology and literature. In the famous Chinese novel, The Water Margins, the hero Wusong slays a tiger that has been terrorising a village with his bare fists, a scene often represented on Chinese porcelain.

Although most animal representations in Chinese porcelain, especially at this period, only approximate their subjects, this group of big cats is very accurate in its detail and was almost certainly modelled from life and, more particularly, from animals in captivity.

The leopards are alert and nervous, poised to spring or to retreat, their demeanour similar to that of leopards in the wild, the tigers, however, are striding bored but confident in the stiff legged and unnatural manner of caged tigers and unlike their fluid and stealthy motion outside of captivity. (HOWARD, 1997) It is likely that the only location where such close observation could be made was in the animal park of the Emperor Kangxi and, this being the case, the only possible destination for the completed model would be the Emperor himself. Certainly no potter producing a model for export would have been granted access to the Emperor's property.

Early in his reign (1662-1722) Kangxi reconstructed the Imperial kilns at Jingdejeng that had been destroyed in the civil war; he revived the tradition of Imperial patronage of the Kilns and appointed the secretary of the Imperial works department Ts'ang YingHsuan, who was an accomplished potter, as director of the Imperial kiln. This marked a departure from the Ming emperors whose directors had been civil servants.

The new director would have had to employ the best artisans from those commercial kilns that had survived the war and which were making porcelain for export to the West. At this time many large dishes and vases in the famille verte palette and similar to those made for export, except in their scale, were made for the newly built Summer Palace, the Yuanmingyuan, and it seems likely that the massive models of the big cats were contemporary to these pieces and were also destined for the Yuanmingyuan.

The Yuanmingyuan was sacked and looted by the French and English, led by Lord Elgin, in October 1860 and much of this porcelain found its way back to these countries after the withdrawal of the European forces from China.

As the known recent history of the big cats relates to both France and England it lends credence to the supposition that their original home was the Yuanmingyuan.

Michael Cohen

9.

A FAMILLE ROSE CHARGER Yongzheng, circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 21 inches (53.3cm) A large famille rose charger finely enamelled with an equestrian hunting scene observed by dignitaries on a terrace, the rim with a floral border of peonies, daisies, roses and morning glory.

REFERENCES:

This vividly painted dish belongs to a small group of very fine large chargers that were painted in the Yongzheng period with dramatic or narrative Chinese scenes. Such scenes were much more common in the Kangxi period, being part of an extensive propaganda for the relatively new Qing dynasty. However by the reign of Emperor Yongzheng this was much less of an imperative on porcelain. These chargers are characterised by very bright enamels - in particular the yellow which is used to great effect, as well as a wide range of greens and turquoises.

This scene of deer hunting is also a Chinese pun - the word for deer is the same as the word for financial reward (particularly a good government income) so the chasing of deer represents a striving for capital gain, in effect a pictorial glorification of Capitalism.

COHEN & COHEN (2004) Bedtime Stories, p14, Cat 6, a charger of the same size with a scene from The Romance of the Western Chamber.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p6265, Nos 38-42, several items of similar type.

If we open up a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

Winston Churchill

10.

A MASSIVE PAIR OF JARDINIERES Yongzheng / Qianlong, circa 1735 European Market Diameter: 24 inches (61cm) Height: 15 inches (38cm) Pair of large famille rose jardinières finely painted with ducks and cranes amongst water plants, the flattened rim with a floral border reserved with panels of paired carp. Together with a pair of carved giltwood stands.

The birds depicted on these jardinières are: Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata); Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) and Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes) and there is a leaping Toad (Bufo asiaticus) and a very large cricket.

Mandarin ducks are symbols of happiness and marital fidelity and often appear on porcelain from this period. This species of duck has bright plumage and nests in holes in trees. It used to be widespread in eastern Siberia, China and Japan but is now considerably reduced, possibly as low as 20,000 following habitat loss. It has survived by being unpleasant to the taste and therefore no good for hunting. There is also a free flying population in the UK which has established itself in the wild from birds originally held in captivity - the first to arrive in Europe having been brought back from China in 1745.

Kingfishers were very popular in China and their feathers were widely used in appliqué work on copper. They were often called the ‘halcyon bird’ as it was believed that they had power over the waves and could calm the sea. The Chinese Egret was once widespread but is now endangered with a remaining population of 2000 and their eggs are still collected by

Chinese farmers for food! Here one of the egrets is eyeing a nearby dragonfly which it is about to consume.The other pair of small finch like birds are unidentified.

The Toad (or frog - the Chinese did not distinguish between the two) was known as the ‘heavenly chicken’ because the spawn was believed to drop with the dew. A medicine was extracted from the warts on the Toad’s back which was a remedy for heart attack. A three legged toad is believed to swallow the moon during an eclipse.

Crickets feature widely in Chinese culture either as singing insects or fighting ones. Combats were popular and money was wagered as in cockfighting.

They are the emblem of courage and the symbol of summer.

These jardinières are of an impressive size and must have been intended for small trees - perhaps in an orangery. The insides are unglazed and there are drainage holes at the bottom.

REFERENCES: VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, p146, a charger with the Eight Immortals on the rim and a central scene very similar in colour and subject to the decoration on these jardinières.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo et al. (1972) Kina Slott på Drottningholm, p205, a painting on rice paper with the same combination of birds and insects.

11.

A BOTANICAL CHARGER Qianlong, circa 1740 Dutch Market Diameter: 19 ¼ inches (49cm) A famille rose botanical charger painted with an iris and an orchid surrounded by butterflies and caterpillars, the rim with a brightly enamelled floral band and the cavetto having an unusual border of gilding over underglaze blue.

This magnificent charger has a well-known design that is traditionally attributed to Maria Sybille Merian (1646-1717), a remarkable Natural Historian and botanical artist who travelled to the Dutch West Indies in 1698. She later published a book of her drawings, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Pub: Holland 1705 and France 1771). Her work was very influential but this particular image has not been found in any of her published or known works. In fact she did not usually mix flower species in the same drawing, unless it was part of a dramatic garland with ribbons.

A second mystery connected with this design is the link with Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759), a Dutch artist commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to produce designs on porcelain. A range of the ‘Pronk’ pieces are known and quite a few designs are attributed to him with varying degrees of certainty. They are characterised by very elaborate and brightly enamelled borders and images of a European sensibility, even when featuring Chinese figures. There must have been a workshop set up to produce these very high quality items and it is reasonable to assume that designs from various sources were developed for production, with a cross-fertilisation of ideas and details of border and background. In fact the ‘Pronk’ pieces were so expensive that they were not considered commercial after a while and production lasted for only about six years.

So this would seem to be a ‘Merian inspired’ image on a charger produced in the ‘Pronk’ workshop.

There are a number of parallels that suggest this. Several of the Pronk designs are known in famille rose and also in blue and white, relatively unusual for most Chinese export porcelain - and this dish is also known in blue and white. There are also blue and white versions of this dish of inferior quality that were produced in the 1770s - as was also the case for the ‘Dame au Parasol’ pattern by Pronk.

The border of this dish is quite similar to that on the rims of the ‘Doctor’s Visit’ and the ‘Arbour’ patterns. The sheer quality and fine colouring of the enamelling is also comparable.

The high quality blue and white versions of this dish have water insects painted on the back of the rim the same as the ‘Dame au Parasol’ blue and white examples. This famille rose example also has butterflies painted on the back of the rim. Finally, Howard records a vase

from a garniture which has other flowers like these and a cell diaper ground that is found only on other Pronk pieces. Cohen & Cohen have recently sold another garniture with flowers and ‘Pronk-style’ cell ground that is also likely to be from this same workshop (see below).

It will probably never be possible to fully work out who was responsible for this attractive design but they were clearly Western and a trained artist rather than simply a talented supercargo. This workshop was very likely in Canton in order to be under the control of the officers of the VOC and the necessary cooperation required between the enamellers and the potters at Jingdezhen would have been complicated. It is possible that this set the precedent for the later growth in workshops in Canton, so that by the second half of the eighteenth century most of the coloured overglaze decoration on export porcelain was done there.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p304, No 298, a dinner plate.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p78, No 60, a dinner plate.

JÖRG, CJA (1997) Chinese Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum, p287, fig 334, a saucer.

The flower is a jumble of thighs, the sun’s harem - the most oriental thing imaginable.

Malcolm de Chazal (1902-1981)

6.

AN ARMORIAL DISH Qianlong, circa 1750 Dutch Market Diameter: 12 ½ inches (31.7cm) Rare Chinese export charger enamelled with the arms of Tulleken of The Netherlands within an elaborate rococo border.

This striking armorial dish from a previously unrecorded service was possibly made for Rutger Tulleken who was the son of William Jan Tulleken (1703-1798) and Katherina Jakomina Otters of Hattem, Gelderland in Holland. A fine Yongzheng service is recorded for the parents. Rutger married Anna Francoisa van Pabst in Arnhem on 27 March 1773.

REFERENCES: MAERTENS de NOORDHOUT, Henry & KOZYREFF, Chantal (2000) Porcelaines Armoriées du Pavillon Chinois, p70, No 40, a plate from the service made for Rutger’s parents.

COHEN & COHEN (2001) School’s Out, p25, No 21, a charger from the parents’ service.

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

George Santayana

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

George Bernard Shaw

4.

A PAIR OF ARMORIAL SAUCE BOATS Kangxi/Yongzheng, circa 1722 English Market Length: 8 ½ inches (21.5cm) Fine pair of Chinese export armorial sauceboats painted in iron-red, gilt and grisaille with the arms of Verney with Heath in pretence.

Arms:Verney: gules three crosses recercelée or, a chief vair, ermine and ermines, supporters: two antelopes argent, semée of torteaux, armed and unguled or, motto: VIRTUE VAUNCETH. Heath: argent a cross engrailed between twelve billets gules.

The form of these sauceboats is unusual and follows a seventeenth century silver original. The decoration is restrained and uses two shades of green enamel as well as the rouge de fer and gilt. The arms are elaborate with grisaille and a very early use of the pink enamel that gave rise to the name famille rose. This was first used at the end of the reign of Kangxi having been introduced to the Chinese by the Jesuits. Howard notes that this service seems to have been ordered in two parts - or at least has two styles - in that the cap of the coronet is either in gold or in rose enamel. This would suggest that the new colour was only just being introduced at the time of the order for this service which dates it to around 1722.

The service was made for George Verney, 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1661-1728) who succeeded his father to the title in 1711. He married in 1683

Margaret, the daughter and heir of Sir John Heath of Braisted in Kent. George was a Fellow of New College, Oxford and Canon of Windsor in 1711, becoming Dean and Registrar of the Order of the Garter in 1713.

In 1711 he inherited the estate of Compton Verney and built a substantial house there in the classical style, with the assistance of Sir John Vanbrugh among others. The porcelain dinner service to which these items belong must have been ordered for this house and would have then represented the very latest in fashionable conspicuous consumption. George’s grandson conveniently inherited a rich neighbouring estate and so Compton Verney was considerably remodelled by Robert Adam in the late eighteenth century, with landscaping by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. Having fallen into dereliction it has been restored with grants from the Peter Moores Foundation and is now open to the public as an Art Gallery, including an important collection of Chinese Bronzes.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p200, where he discusses the two possible orders though he says that the first has gold on the crown and the motto in capitals letters and the second has pink on the crown and the motto in italics.

However these sauceboats have pink enamel on the crown but the motto is in capitals, which might suggest a single order with several variations.

5.

A PAIR OF ARMORIAL CHARGERS Yongzheng, circa 1728 English Market Diameter: 15 1/4 inches (39cm) A pair of famille rose chargers with the arms of Yorke impaling Cocks below a puce cell-pattern band in the well and floral clusters at the border, interrupted at the top by the crest.

Arms: Yorke: argent a saltire azure, crest: a monkey’s head; Cocks: sable a chevron between three stags’ attires fixed to the scalps argent.

6A.

AN ARMORIAL POT & COVER Qianlong, circa 1760 Height: 5 ¼ inches (13.5cm) Diameter: 4 ½ inches (11.5cm) A famille rose cylindrical armorial box and cover, enamelled and gilt on both sides with an accollée coat of arms between branches of prunus and camellia below a gilt scroll border.

The arms are at present unidentified. They appear to be continental possibly Italian - divisions of the shields resembles the arms of Torriano and Proli, Italian families living in the low countries who ordered elaborate services though the Ostend East India Company. The double headed eagle in each shield is the symbol of St Augustine though its significance here is not clear. The accollée arms are unusually imbalanced - the female arms appearing displaced by the centrally situated male arms - it looks almost as if the female arms were added after the others.

This very fine service is connected to two other famous and interesting Chinese export armorial dinner services, one with the arms of Lord Somers and the other with those of Lord Anson. It was made for Philip Yorke who was one of the most significant legal figures of the eighteenth century and an important political force after the fall of Sir Robert Walpole.

In May 1719 he married Margaret, daughter of Sir Charles Cocks, MP for Worcester who was married to the elder sister of Lord Somers, Lord Chancellor. Philip and Margaret’s daughter Elizabeth was later married to Lord Anson, who circumnavigated the globe (1740-44) and had an armorial dinner service commissioned while he was in Canton, that has pictures of ships sailing into Portsmouth, ships in the Pearl River and the first version of the Valentine pattern. Mrs Delany said of him: "Lord A. is a most generous good-natured amiable man, and he deserved a wife of more dignity."

Philip Yorke (1690-1764) was the son of Philip, a solicitor of Dover and the grandson of Simon, a merchant.

He claimed relation to the Yorkes of Yorkshire but could not prove it. He was successfully sued in the court of Chivalry after he used these arms and required to alter them and change the crest to a lions head. He was precociously talented and was initially guided by the Earl of Macclesfield. He became MP for Lewes, Sussex, and was appointed Solicitor General and then Attorney General in 1720 when he was also knighted having been at the bar for only four years!

In 1733 he was created Baron Hardwicke, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench and Speaker of the House of Lords, becoming Lord Chancellor in 1737, a position held by his uncle and also later by his son, Charles. In 1743 he promoted Henry Pelham as ‘Prime Minister’ over Pulteney and in 1745 was the presiding judge in the trial of four Peers after the Jacobite rebellion. After the death of Pelham in 1754 he supported Lord Newcastle for Prime Minister and was rewarded by being created the 1st Earl of Hardwicke. He served in Pitt the Elder’s Cabinet in 1757 and died in 1764.

While not a statesman of the first rank he was

regarded as one of the finest judges of his time and was responsible for establishing the legal principles of Equity Law and later for the Marriage Act of 1753 which remains the basis of marriage law to this day. He is also credited with creating the modern conception of the duties and demeanour of English judges, after what Chesterfield described as “the bloodhounds” of the Stuart judges. In public he was upright and consistent and although avaricious never accused of corruption. In his private life he was virtuous though arrogant and fiercely self-promoting no doubt fully aware of his own abilities contrasting with his relatively humble background.

Philip Yorke had five sons of whom Philip married Lady Jemima Campbell, granddaughter of the Duke of Kent (whose arms appear on a later dinner service), Charles who became Lord Chancellor and married the daughter of Baron Stocken of Denmark, Joseph who was ADC to the Duke of Cumberland and created Lord Dover, and James who became Bishop of Eley.

The gilt rim border of these chargers is interesting in that it is derived directly from the chain of the Order of Saint-Esprit which is found around the arms of Louis XV on a service of 1723.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p230, a mug from this service made for Philip, c1728; p771 a bowl from the Winterthur Museum with the newer Yorke crest, c 1790, and probably ordered by Philip’s son Charles; p319, a plate from a service with the arms of Yorke with de Grey in pretence, Campbell quarterly accollée, made for Philip’s eldest son, c1742; p177, the service for Philip’s uncle, Lord Somers, ordered c1715; p46 & 323 for the service made for Lord Anson, Philip’s son-in-law.

COHEN & COHEN (2004) Bedtime Stories - see p42 for a 49 piece service with the arms of Sir Robert Chambers another important eighteenth century legal figure.

COHEN & COHEN (2003) Soldier Soldier, p18, No 7 a massive charger with the arms of Louis XV of France which shows the source of the rim detail.

7.

A MONTEITH Qianlong, circa 1740 English Market Length 20 ¼ inches (51.5cm)

Princess Marina, photo by Cecil Beaton

Massive Chinese export oval monteith finely enamelled in polychrome with peonies, prunus and daisies amongst rockwork.

By repute, Ex. Collection of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.

This particular form of crenellated bowl derives from a seventeenth century silver form. The notches are to hold in place stemmed glasses so that the bowls can be chilled inside the Monteith. Often the silver examples had the rim as a separate detachable part so that it could also serve as a punch bowl. This example is larger, with a substantial foot and elaborate crenellations.

The original inspiration for the rim was the cut edge of a cloak belonging to a ‘fantastical Scot’ Monsieur Monteigh about whom little is known. Samuel Pepys describes him as a “swaggering handsome young gentleman...with a good basse but used to sing only tavern tunes”. He was clearly a lively character but probably had nothing to do with the creation of these objects. In contemporary inventories objects of this shape have been called variously: Monteth, Menteth, Mounteth, Munteth, Montef and Moonteeth.

The earliest mention is: This yeare [1683] in the summer time came up a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to coole them. Such a bason was called a 'Monteigh,' from a fantastical Scot called 'Monsieur Monteigh,' who at that time or a little before wore the bottome of his cloake or coate so notched U U U U. Diary of Anthony Wood, Oxford, December 1683 Chinese export porcelain monteiths are rare and most are decorated in underglaze blue. Some are known in famille verte and a very few in famille rose.

REFERENCES: LEE, Georgina E., Monteith Bowls, a discussion of their origins and a survey of mainly silver examples.

WIRGIN, Jan (1998) Från KINA till EUROPA. p64, No 63, a large footed monteith with famille verte enamels.

PINTO DE MATOS, MA & SALGADO, M (2002) Chinese Porcelain in the Carmona and Costa Foundation, p142, No 37, a pair of the same shape and size as this example but with different brighter enamels.

COHEN & COHEN (2002) After You! p8, No 3, a blue and white example.

LE CORBEILLER, Clare (1974) China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange. p36 a blue and white example now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p190, cat 218 an example in the Hodroff Collection.

13.

A FIGURE OF A LADY HOLDING A PEACH Qianlong, circa 1750 European Market Height: 11 inches (28cm) Fine and large famille rose figure of a standing Chinese lady, dressed in brightly coloured robes and holding a peach.

The identity of this figure is not clear. One possibility is that she is the fairy Ma Gu who is an attendant upon Hsi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, and she is bringing one of the ‘peaches of immortality’ to the banquet held on the Pamir mountains every three thousand years, where the immortals all come to nibble upon a peach and stoke up their longevity. This is the same banquet which was disrupted by the Monkey King (see item 1 in this catalogue).

It may also be Hsi Wang Mu herself with one of her peaches - the expression is subtle and charming. She is the personification of femininity (Yin) and is married to Mu Gong (Yang) who watches over males.

The nectarine, and curious peach, Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons, as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite - that particular peach is but a detail.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Newhoff gives us a relation of one of their Emperors, who was confident he had purchased the immortal draught; and was cured of the whimsy by one of his favourites in this manner: The Emperor having a cup of this liquor of life before him, and declaiming upon the virtues and excellency of it, while he turned his back, the favourite had the assurance to drink off part of it; whereupon the Emperor in a rage threatened him with immediate death: To which the wise minister calmly replied, do you suppose you can deprive me of life now I have drunk of the immortal cup; if you can what have you lost? If you cannot, I am become equally immortal with you; and this short way of reasoning it seems reduced that prince to his senses. from Thomas Salmon’s Modern History or the Present State of All Nations, Vol I, (3rd Edn, 1744)

21.

A PAIR OF BOYS Qianlong, circa 1740 European Market Height: 15 inches (38.2cm) A pair of porcelain figures modelled as laughing boys carrying sconces decorated with lotus, enamelled in famille rose.

Pairs of laughing boys carrying pots of lotus are known as hehe erxian or the Twin Immortals of Harmony.

They are the patron deities of Chinese merchants, particularly of Chinese potters, and in paintings they often accompany Tsai Shen, the God of Wealth. Boys were always strongly favoured in Chinese culture and these have special protective amulets or gilded lockets around their necks to ward of evil spirits and their bracelets are made from the beaten iron nails of old coffins, which were traditionally worn by boys under sixteen years old.

Pairs of these figure are recorded mainly in famille verte enamels and occasionally in blue and white but the famille rose examples are rare and these are extremely fine examples.

REFERENCES: ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (1999) Porcelanas e Vidros, p61, a pair of famille verte boys ALVES, Jorge et al (1998) Caminhos da Porcelana - Dinastias Ming e Qing, p318, No 124, a pair of famille verte boys.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo et al. (1972) Kina Slott på Drottningholm, p295, No 76, a single famille rose boy very similar to these ones.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p579, No 600, a pair of famille verte boys, 10 ½ inches tall.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p248, No 293, a pair of famille verte boys.

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p135, No 171, a single boy in famille rose with a yellow jacket, 26 inches high, Yongzheng circa 1735 - a magnificent example.

Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

James Thurber (1894-1961)

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.

Plato (428 BC-348 BC)

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn't matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Two boys are half a boy, and three boys are no boy at all.

Old proverb

16.

A PAIR OF MAIDEN CANDLE HOLDERS Qianlong, circa 1750 European Market Height: 16 ½ inches (42cm) Magnificent pair of Chinese export lady candle holders each modelled in mirror image holding a gu form sconce and supported on a flat leaf base, the robes decorated in vivid famille rose enamels.

Pairs of court ladies in the form of candlesticks like this are well documented but rare, especially of this size, and this pair is particularly fine having very expressive and well moulded faces as well as such unusual and rich decoration to the robes. The bases in the form of curled lilypads are also unusual.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p615 No 644 - a single example; p614, No 643, another pair which it is suggested are derived from a chinoiserie original.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p258 No 307, another pair; No 308, another pair.

WILLIAMSON, George C (1970) The Book Of Famille Rose, plate LIX, various single examples of the type.

SHARPE, Rosalie Wise (2002) Ceramics: Ethics & Scandal, p209, a pair of ladies with lotus candleholders also derived from chinoiserie models but with unusual feather shoulder mantles possibly of South American influence.

COHEN & COHEN (2001) School’s Out, p44, Cat 37, another pair of ladies.

COHEN & COHEN (2004) Bedtime Stories, p46, No 26, a pair of ladies.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.

James Thurber (1894-1961)

23.

A GOOSE TUREEN Qianlong, circa 1770 Portuguese Market Width and Height: 15¼ in. (39 cm.)

Provenance: Ex Collection of Lady Baron Ex Champalimaud Collection A chinese export porcelain tureen and cover modelled as a goose and decorated in bright famille rose enamels.

These goose tureens are one of the most sought after items of Chinese Export porcelain and from this example it can be seen why. They are magnificently poised and elegant while retaining a mild sense of the ridiculous.

Rather like a Victorian maiden aunt determined to take a swim in the sea.

These tureens are known in two types, a smaller form with a shorter neck and cruder decoration which just predates this larger form. They are apparently copied from a European original though the precise models are not clear. Käendler at Meissen modelled standing geese and a white Chinese copy is recorded from 1750, (Howard & Ayers, 1978). Adam von Löwenfinck who began work at the Elector of Mainz’s Höchst factory (where some animal model tureens were made) moved in 1749 to the Strasbourg factories under Paul-Antoine Hannong, where he developed a wide range of animal tureens which became popular. Examples of goose, turkey, woodcock and oxhead tureens are known.

Other bird tureens and covered boxes were made in English factories, for example the nesting partridges made at Bow which were also copied by the Chinese.

Examples of similar tureens are also known from the Portuguese factory of Rato but not until 1770, which is too late to have served as model for the Chinese examples - more likely they were copying them as the main market for such goose tureens seems to have been Portugal. It also likely that the Chinese themselves contributed to these designs: avian-form boxes were known in earlier times (especially the Han Dynasty) and later cloisonné examples of ducks are also known.

Such goose tureens date from 1760 to 1780, with the earliest having very naturalistic decoration and the enamels becoming more brightly coloured to cater for Iberian taste. This example is roughly in the middle of the spectrum and the painting is of a particularly high quality.

In Chinese mythology the goose symbolises yang and is the Prince of Light and Masculinity. It is also seen as the harbinger of good news and was often given as a betrothal offering. Geese pair for life and there are many hunting tales of a bereaved goose repeatedly returning to where its mate was shot. Pairs of flying geese often appear on chinese porcelain and portray marital fidelity. In the

second century BC a general, Su Wu, was captured by invading Turkic tribesmen. He sent a note to the Emperor Han Wu Ti attached to the leg of a goose which was shot (by an arrow) in the Imperial Grounds: Su Wu was consequently rescued.

During the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.) a teacher called Dao An in the Kunlun Mountains, developed an exercise system called Dayan Qigong or Wild Goose Qigong, with many of the movements imitating the style of wild geese. This was very popular with the Emperor Wanli in the late Ming Dynasty and it was further promoted by Emperor Qianlong who established temples all over China.

The goose is the Chinese Goose or Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) first described by Linnaeus in 1758. A large flock-forming goose that used to be widespread across India and Asia its population is now rapidly declining due to habitat loss and unregulated hunting (less than 30,000 remaining) and it is categorised as severely endangered by the IUCN.

The Chinese Goose is the best stock on board ship that I ever saw, not liable to sickness and thrives upon very little grain and water.

Surgeon on Marquis of Lansdown, EEIC ship in Canton 1787.

REFERENCES: (for goose tureens)

19.

BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companies, p172, an early example, p85, a later example with the arms of Galvez.

PAIR OF PUG DOGS

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p140, No 178, a nice example and mention of an order by the VOC for 25 of such tureens in 1763.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p590, No 614, the smaller type, No 615, the larger type.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p120, No 119, a pair of gosling tureens and a duck tureen, p113, No 109, a large goose tureen.

LLOYD HYDE, JA (1964) Oriental Lowestoft - Chinese Export Porcelain, the frontispiece is an illustration of this same tureen.

PINTO DE MATOS, MA & SALGADO, M (2002) Chinese Porcelain in the Carmona and Costa Foundation, p148, No 40, a pair very similar to this tureen.

ALVES, Jorge et al (1998) Caminhos da Porcelana - Dinastias Ming e Qing, p268, No 87, the smaller type, No 88, the larger type, this example very brightly coloured.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (2000) Porcelana da China, p68, No 53, a bright example with the arms of D. Matias de Galvez y Gallardo.

PHILLIPS, John Goldsmith (1956) China Trade Porcelain, p160, plate 72, a similar tureen.

SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures in the Peabody Museum, p238, a model of a standing white goose.

MUDGE, Jean McLure (1986) Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, p54. fig 62, a goose tureen with the arms of Cervantes.

Qianlong period, circa 1760 English Market Height: 7 inches (17.8cm) Pair of Chinese export models of pug dogs, each modelled in mirror image and painted in deep tan with black pupils on white eyes and with a gold bell on the collar.

Porcelain models of pugs, snubnosed fighting dogs popular in England, were known in porcelain in the eighteenth century from 1735. Examples are recorded from Chelsea, Bow, Derby and Longton Hall and among the earliest are models by Kaendler at Meissen (1741-5), who is believed to have based his on a pug owned by the Countess von Brühl, wife of the Director of the Meissen factory.

They were copied by the Chinese from about 1750 with the earliest examples having black fur, small eyes and their ears trimmed down as was the custom for fighting dogs. This pair is slightly later and shows how the Chinese potters altered details to make them more appealing for the market, giving them the same ears and eyes as the spaniel models that were very popular at that time. This later type seems rarer than the earlier.

REFERENCES: BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companie, p111, fig 81, one of a pair with cut ears.

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p139, No 177, a pair of pugs with cut ears.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p599, No 623, a single with black fur and cut ears.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West.

Volumes I and II. London: Sotheby's Parke Bernet Publications.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p274, No 330, a pair with cut ears, No 331 a single like this pair.

VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, p106, a single with cut ears.

SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, p189191,a large pair (11 inches high) with cut ears and orange fur.

COHEN & COHEN (2003) Soldier Soldier, p56, No 28, a pair of spaniels for comparison.

To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963)

12.

A PAIR OF CRANES Jiaqing, early 19th century European Market Height : 26 inches (66cm) An impressive pair of cranes modelled in mirror image, one bird to the right, the other to the left, both standing on a pierced oval rockwork base with a large lingzhi fungus spray to the back and smaller sprays to the front, the head with large eyes, long beak and red crest held high on an elegant long neck, the plumage and neatly folded wings and tail feathers finely incised and glazed white.

These birds are a combination of the two main species of crane found in China in the early nineteenth century, the Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) which has black primary feathers and red legs and the Red-Crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) which has a black nape and grey legs and white primaries though the secondaries are black. Most early depictions of cranes on Chinese porcelain are of the Red Crowned Crane, such as can be found on Yongzheng imperial bowls, sometimes in groups of eight carrying the eight Taoist precious objects.

The modelled examples vary considerably in their natural accuracy. This pair have great style and presence with prominent decurved beaks that almost resemble a flamingo. The plumage is rendered in an unusual style by a sgrafito technique, incising the white enamel.

The stylised green lingzhi may also be meant to resemble pine branches - both are of a consistent symbolism with the cranes - all three suggesting a long life.

Cranes were popular in Chinese art and are regarded as the Patriarch of birds as well as the ‘aerial courser’ of the Immortals. They are emblematic of longevity and are often depicted next to a pine tree.

(There is a record of a Siberian Crane that lived to the age of 83!) In Chinese mythology there are four types of cranes: black, yellow, white and blue. The longest lived is the black crane which after six hundred years refuses food though still drinks. The white crane is embroidered on the robes of civil officials of the fourth grade.

The writer Sou Shen Chi tells a tale of a native of Shengking in the second century called Ting Ling-wei who went to the Ling-hsu Mountain to study the black arts. After a thousand years he changed himself into a crane, returned to his home town and perched on a tombstone, where he sang: “A bird there is and that is Ting Ling-wei His home he left a thousand years ago; Its walls unchanged, its folk now turned to clay Far better be hsien than moulder so.”

After which he went to heaven.

In nature both these crane species are severely endangered: the Siberian Crane now has a population of 3000 and is threatened by the Yangtze dam projects and the Red-Crowned Crane was declared extinct in China in 2004, with about 1800 surviving elsewhere.

These magnificent birds have complex dances to reinforce pair bonding, which is usually for life, and thus they are also used to represent marital fidelity.

REFERENCES: SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures in the Peabody Museum, p153, No 70, a single crane with black nape; p164, No 76, a single white crane; p166, No 77, a pair of cranes with the same incised white enamel technique.

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p138, No 176, a pair of cranes (Qianlong) with black nape, red crown and brown faces - and a single white crane.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p271, No 326, a crane on rocks, (Guangxu) WIRGIN, Jan (1998) Från KINA till EUROPA, p205, No 224, a single crane with a black nape.

KJELLBERG, Sven (1975) Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna, 1731-1813, p248, a single crane with black nape, and a mention that the crane is also the crest of the Grills family for whom a number of armorial services were made, and also the Tranefelt service which features a crane in the coat of arms.

COHEN & COHEN (2003) Soldier Soldier, p39, No 19, 62 pieces of the Tranefelt armorial dinner service.

VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, p105, a single crane but called a heron.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo et al. (1972) Kina Slott på Drottningholm, p295, a small single crane with black nape.

Cranes carry this heavy mystical baggage. They're icons of fidelity and happiness. The Vietnamese believe cranes cart our souls up to heaven on their wings.

Mitchell Burgess, 1992

24.

A PAIR OF VASES & COVERS Qianlong, circa 1765 European Market Height: 23 ½ inches (59.7cm) A pair of baluster shaped vases and covers brightly decorated with the tobacco leaf pattern including pheasants and tree shrews, the covers with knops modelled as dogs of Fo. This pattern is one of several variants that are known as ‘tobacco leaf’ and which are characterised by bright colours and large leaves covering much of the porcelain surface. They were expensive and complicated to make, as each colour had to be fired separately.

In fact they are not tobacco flowers (Nicotiana spp.) but more likely hibiscus or passionflower and the foliage is reminiscent of the dense jungle of South East Asia. This variant also includes golden pheasants (Chrysolophus pictus, Linnaeus 1758) and tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) and these vases are well painted with a successful balance between the colouring and the white porcelain ground. George Washington is reputed to have owned a service in this pattern at Mount Vernon.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p542, Nos 555-557, various pieces and a discussion of the pattern.

LITZENBERG, Thomas V, (2003) Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection at Washington and Lee University, p225, No 231, a dinner plate with this pattern.

JÖRG, CJA (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain, Chine de Commande from the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, p104, No 30, various tobacco leaf items.

VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, a meatdish and dinner plate with this pattern.

We manipulate nature as if we were stuffing an Alsatian goose. We create new forms of energy; we make new elements; we kill crops; we wash brains. I can hear them in the dark sharpening their lasers.

Erwin Chargaff What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey or the guinea hen.

Alice B. Toklas

15.

A BOMBE FORM SNUFF BOX Qianlong, circa 1740 European Market Height: 2 inches (5cm) Width: 2 ¾ inches (7cm) Depth: 1 5/8 inches (4cm) A famille rose gilt-metal mounted snuff box of deep oval bombé form, delicately enamelled with a Chinese domestic scene on the cover and Meissen style scenes on the body, all reserved on a gilt scrolling ground.

This example is very finely painted with a mixture of Chinese and European scenes. The top has a delicate domestic scene of Chinese ladies in a garden complemented by flowers on the inside of the lid. The front and back of the base have two harbour scenes typical of the Meissen hausmaler style.

Snuff was very popular in the eighteenth century and snuff boxes were an essential fashion accessory for the best dressed man about town - one source recommending that he should have a different box for every day of the year!

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p222, No 260, a similar shaped box but with European scenes after Meissen and two pheasants on the lid, and No 259, a flatter version of this shape but with different Chinese scenes; p81, No 65, a dinner plate with the same harbour scene as the back of this box.

HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p123, No 153, a box of similar shape with a mixture of Chinese and European scenes; p112, No 134, another similar box with Meissen scenes.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p345, No 15.12, a dinner plate with the same scene as the back of this box; p348, No 15,23, an armorial snuff box of the same shape.

COHEN & COHEN (2004) Bedtime Stories, p26, No 14, a box of similar shape with scenes of Chinese warriors.

14.

A COFFEE POT Qianlong, circa 1760 French Market Height: 8 ¾ inches (22.3cm) Famille rose ‘lighthouse’ coffee pot and cover decorated with Europeans in a garden.

This elegant pot is derived from a print by Nicholas Larmessin (1656-1725) after a painting by Nicholas Lancret (1690-1743) which is part of a series called the Four Seasons. It is entitled An Allegory of Summer and is related to Lancret’s more famous picture of Spring with a birdcatcher. Lancret was one of the creators of the pastoral pictures called fêtes galantes or fêtes champêtres, along with Watteau and others. The simple outdoor scenes are filled with city people dressed as rural folk and performing rustic tasks. It is meant to show them playing at rural life rather than living it properly, and as such is just a fashionable game. These pastoral idylls of the eighteenth century are also replete with sexual symbolism (e.g. the spade, the earthenware jar) and were very popular on Chinese export porcelain.

This design is very rare and may have been used on only one teaservice, which was sold at Sotheby’s Monaco in 1981 but which lacked a teapot and coffee pot.

REFERENCES: BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companie, p55, figs 30, 31 a bowl with this scene in the G Duff Collection, Lisbon.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p164, No 7.65, the same bowl as in Buerdeley above; also Nos 3.34 and 7.79 are examples of the same shape, both with European figures.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p373, No 367, a chocolate pot of the same shape and a scene of a European picnic.

VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, p171, a dinner plate with a very similar scene entitled Autumn.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (2000) Porcelana da China, p48, No 30, a teacaddy with this scene.

LLOYD HYDE, JA (1964) Oriental Lowestoft - Chinese Export Porcelain, p87, the same teacaddy.

SCHEURLEER, LUNSINGH DF (1974) Chinese Export Porcelain: Chine de Commande, Nos 208-210, the same teacaddy as above, the Larmessin print and a spoon tray which is enamelled only in iron red, black and gold therefore indicating a second service with this design in a different palette.

20.

A PAIR OF SHELL-SCROLL TUREENS, COVERS & STANDS Qianlong, circa 1770 Portuguese Market Stand length: 13 ¾ inches (35cm) Fine and rare pair of neo-classical boat- shaped tureens, covers and stands, each piece painted with a spray of European flowers within floral swag borders.

This form is known from the Wedgewood factories and was used for smaller sauce tureens from about 1770 onwards, some of which are listed below. Shell-scroll tureens of this larger size are very rare. The decoration too is following European floral designs and colouring after French or Iberian pottery.

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963)

REFERENCES BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companie, p71, plate XV a sauce tureen and spoon with the arms of Pedro III of Portugal.

CASTRO, N (1988) Chinese Porcelain and the Heraldry of the Empire, p137, a sauce tureen with the arms of Sobral.

WIRGIN, Jan (1998) Fran KINA till EUROPA, p106, No. 108, a sauce tureen with very bright enamelling.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p 555 No 573, a large tureen, cover and stand strongly enamelled in turquoise and red, dated 1808.

COHEN & COHEN (2001) School’s Out, p62, No 48, a large tureen, cover and stand strongly enamelled in turquoise and red, Jiaqing, ex Mottahedeh Collection.

LE CORBEILLER, C & FRELINGHUYSEN, AC (2003) Chinese Export Porcelain, p35, No 34, an armorial sauce tureen, No 35, a Wedgewood original.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (2000) Porcelana da China, p64, No 48, a pair of sauce tureens, covers and stand with porcelain spoons, same form but different colouring.

17.

A PAIR OF VASES & COVERS Qianlong, circa 1770 Continental Market Height: 25 inches (63.5cm) Fine and large pair of hexagonal mandarin vases and covers, each painted with panels of courtly scenes on an iron red and black cell diaper ground, the covers with Buddhist lion knops.

This pair of vases and the next pair which are very similar in decoration, are of a type that represents the very highest quality chinese export of their time.

These were ‘top-of-the-range’ in the supercargo’s inventory and would have been as prized and valuable then as they are now. They were made at a time when the taste for Chinese fashion had combined with the Rococo producing items of very elaborate and complex design.

This pair is a little larger than the following pair and has formal scenes with predominantly male figures, a banquet, a dignitary travelling in a cart, a boy presenting a bearded man of Tartar appearance with a bonsai tree, and an archer firing an arrow. In the neck panels are small vignettes of scholars or immortals in rocky wildernesses. These all show masculine attributes (yang).

REFERENCE: KJELLBERG, Sven (1975) Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna, 1731-1813, p225, a single vase without cover and different scenes.

The porcelane, or China-ware, is another considerable manufacture in this country: it is made of a very stiff clay, or rather, soft white stone, found in the quarries of the province of Quamsi: the pieces thereof being washed, and separated from the other earth wherewith it is mixed, are beaten to a very fine powder, which they make into a paste, and knead and beat it a long time afterwards, that the water may the better incorporate with it. They use a particular water, which is not to be found in the same part of the country that the earth is: it is impregnated with a peculiar sort of salt, which purifies and refines the clay more than any other. When the paste is sufficiently kneaded, they form their vessels and expose them to the sun morning and evening; but take them in when the sun is too hot, or it will warp them. Thus they dry the vessel by degrees, and paint them as they find the earth proper to receive it. They also wash over the cups with a sort of lee or varnish, made of the same matter the Porcelane is composed of, which gives them a particular lustre.

After this they bake them in a furnace, which they heat with a gentle uniform fire, and for fear they should receive any damage from the air, they do not draw them out immediately after they are baked, but let them cool gradually before they expose them to the air; from whence it appears that it requires a great deal of care and patience to bring this neat ware to perfection; but it is a great mistake to think it takes up a hundred years, as some have reported: nay, it is evident that it is not many months about; for we send them the patterns of several vessels from Europe, which they imitate, and return us the kinds we proposed in a very short time. from Thomas Salmon’s Modern History or the Present State of All Nations, Vol I, (3rd Edn, 1744)

18.

A PAIR OF VASES & COVERS Qianlong, circa 1770 Continental Market Height: 22 inches (56cm) Fine pair of hexagonal mandarin vases and covers, each painted with panels of domestic scenes on a gilt scrolling ground, the ridges painted with flowers and bamboo, the covers with Buddhist lion knops.

This pair which is a little smaller than the previous pair nonetheless matches them very well - it shows scenes of a gentle domestic nature, private and feminine (yin). Among the main scenes are a seated woman holding a shoe next to a boy; a woman indicating a pomegranate (a symbol of fertility) to an older man; a seated lady breastfeeds an infant while a man smoking a pipe looks on; a woman looking at a book of flower paintings. The neck vignettes show pairs of animals: horses, deer and birds.

There are three different sorts of China-ware, distinguished by the different colours: the first is yellow, and though this is coarser than either of the others, yet it being the imperial colour, is always used in the Emperor’s court, and is not allowed to other people. The second sort is grey, with abundance of small irregular lines in it crossing one another; these are the most beautiful, but very rarely brought to Europe. The last and most common sort is white, painted with flowers, trees and birds, of a pure blue, which our merchants principally buy up. This ware is valued according to its fineness, its whiteness, the smoothness, the painting, and fashion. The fineness is discovered by the transparency, which may be judged of by the edges where it is thinnest. The whiteness is not to be judged by the outward varnish, but the earth itself is to be examined; and this appears the whiter the older it is, when the varnish is in some measure worn off. If there be the least wart or roughness upon the surface it is accounted a very great fault; it ought to be perfectly smooth and even throughout.

The painting is either red or blue: their reds, it is observable, are seldom very lively upon these vessels, though they do not want very fine reds in China; but their blue is excellent; however if care is not taken by the workman, the whiteness of the Porcelane will be sullied by a bluish water which flows from the colour. Their flowers, it is observed, are pretty just in their painting; but their human figures are monstrous. from Thomas Salmon’s Modern History or the Present State of All Nations, Vol I, (3rd Edn, 1744)

22.

A TOPOGRAPHICAL PUNCHBOWL Qianlong, circa 1790 English Market Diameter: 16 inches (41cm) A rare famille rose European-subject punch bowl with two foliate panels depicting the Foundling Hospital on one side and the 'Grand Walk' in Vauxhall Gardens on the other, the rim with iron-red and gilt grapevine on a blue ground.

This extremely rare bowl shows two views of London (The Foundling Hospital and Vauxhall Gardens) and may have been intended to pair another bowl with similar rim decoration and two other views of London (The Mansion House and The Ironmongers’ Hall, Fenchurch St). All these views date from around 1750 though the bowls were made at the end of the eighteenth century. The image of the Foundling Hospital was described by Beurdeley and Hervouet as being of Versailles; however it is now known to be of the Hospital after an engraving printed for John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill, & Carington Bowles in St.Paul's Church Yard, London, c1760. The view of Vauxhall Gardens is taken from an engraving by Johann Sebastian Muller after a painting by Samuel Wale.

The Foundling Hospital was the creation of Captain Thomas Coram (1668-1751) a remarkable man who had been moved by the abandoned and dying babies that he saw on the streets of London. He had been a successful shipwright, founder of the first shipyard in Taunton, Massachusetts and a farmer there from 1694 1705. He was less successful as a farmer because he was disliked by the Puritans who conspired against him. On retiring to London he set about working for the foundlings with a tireless campaign that involved all of London society. This culminated in a Royal Charter (17 October 1739) granted by George II, whose wife Queen Caroline was a big supporter of Coram. The first children were received in Hatton Gardens on 25 March 1741 and there were moving descriptions of the wailing mothers departing their children.

The site was purchased from the Earl of Salisbury and money was raised by donations and concerts. Handel raised £7,000 from a performance of his Messiah.

The building was designed by Theodore Jacobsen (ca. 16861772) and the artist William Hogarth (16971764) became a central figure and was appointed the first Governor of the Hospital. Together Then

with the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack (1693-1770) he established an art gallery there, opening on 1 April 1747, with pictures donated by artists of the day, including Francis Hayman and Peter Monamy, for which the public paid an entrance fee and this money helped fund the Hospital. After Hogarth fell out with the St Martin’s Lane Thomas Coram Academy, the Foundling

by William Hogarth Hospital became the prime site for the display of contemporary art in London and was influential in leading to the foundation of the Royal Academy.

The Foundling Hospital became a very popular cause and everyone important in eighteenth century society was involved. Having been built in an open area it had become surrounded by Theodore Jacobsen pollution by 1926, when the

by William Hogarth children were moved to Redhill, Surrey and then in 1936 to Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. The main building was demolished by a developer who planned to move Covent Garden market there, a plan which failed. The land was turned into a children’s playground, Coram’s Fields and today entrance is only permitted to adults if accompanied by a child. The gates have survived. The Foundling Museum occupies a nearby site at 40 Brunswick Square, where some of the keepsakes left with the babies can still be seen.

Coram himself was removed from the board after various arguments. He seems to have been a difficult and awkward man, of great humanity and an uncompromising moral certitude, which his contemporaries found uncomfortable and admirable in equal measure.

Vauxhall Gardens seems a very different place, a social whirl of hedonistic pleasure and entertainment.

Their high period of popularity was under the management of Jonathan Tyers (1702-1767) who reopened them in 1732 with a splendid Ridotto al Fresco attended by Frederick, Prince of Wales. A major driving force behind this was William Hogarth who is believed to have planned the opening himself. and Now

The print by JS Muller, after Samuel Wale

Admission was one shilling, a price that remained constant until 1792, and the main entertainment was musical. There were parades and walks and food could be served in small painted booths. From 1745 the Musical Director was Dr Thomas Arne (1710-1778, composer of Rule Brittania) and there was a statue of George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) by Roubiliac, the plinth for which is just visible on this bowl though Handel seems to have disappeared. The Spring Gardens at Vauxhall were immensely popular and everyone visited them. In 1786 a big celebration attracted crowds of 61,000 and the gardens featured in books, diaries and memoirs.

Tobias Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker (1771) describes a visit: “...a spacious garden, laid out in delightful walks, exhibiting a wonderful assemblage of pavilions, grottoes, temples... - the place crowded with the gayest company and animated by an excellent band of musick.”

The food was expensive and not of the best quality. The ham was famous: one commentator said that it was so thin that you could read a newspaper through it and another wrote that the carver could cover the whole gardens with meat from a single ham. Until 1750 most people arrived by boat but the construction of Westminster Bridge meant that people could arrive by carriage.

Apart from the main parades and the semicircles of booths, there were many quieter and darker walks.

Walpole mentions The Dark Walk, Druids’ Walk and the Lovers’ Walk. These became notorious for assignations and occasional outbursts of indignation led to calls for improved lighting. Fanny Burney in her novel Evelina (1778) describes her innocent title character wandering alone in Vauxhall Gardens where she is accosted by several gentlemen who assume she is a lady of questionable virtue. Keats wrote a Sonnet to a Lady Seen For a Few Moments at Vauxhall: Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand, Since I was tangled in thy beauty's web, And snared by the ungloving of thine hand.

At first glance it is not clear why these two very different places should appear together on a bowl made in China. Yet they present two sides of the same ‘polite and commercial people’ of the Eighteenth Century. The vast increase in wealth and the extension of global horizons of that century led to a pursuit of pleasure that is exemplified by the Vauxhall Gardens and which is accompanied by a change in sensibility that could no longer leave babies to die on the streets of London. Both of these enterprises are wound tightly with the cultural and artistic endeavours of the day - and their participants include creative geniuses such as Hogarth and Handel. They were also both prime sites for the display of visual art and many artists had work displayed at both sites, especially Peter Monamy (1681-1749) and Francis Hayman (1708-1776), the latter being responsible for the mural painted at the back of most of the dining booths at Vauxhall and a por-

Printed for John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill, & Carington Bowles in St.Paul's Church Yard, London. (courtesy Grosvenor Prints)

trait of the Tyers family now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. And they have resonances in modern glamourous charity events which combine celebrity visibility with a moral refreshment or charitable ‘feelgood’.

It is not clear who ordered these bowls though it would have been a small order (less than half a dozen have been recorded) and the Mansion House Bowls may well have been intended as companion pieces. Maybe a Lord Jonathan Tyers, right, with Mayor or rich Alderman in his son Thomas, from a famithe 1790s selected the views ly portrait by Francis and placed an order.

Hayman

REFERENCES: THARP, LARS (1997) Hogarth's China, p110, another example of this bowl and an interesting discussion of the two places.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p202, No 235, another example of this bowl.

BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companies, p191, Cat 179, a punchbowl with a view en grisaille of a London Hospital but dating from c 1750; p108, fig 77, this exact punchbowl, described as showing the Palace of Versailles (!) and with provenance: Ex Marcussen Collection.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p268, No 265, the related punchbowl with views of the Mansion House and the Ironmongers’ Hall.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p244, No 10.22, this same bowl, still described as Versailles!

26.

A BLUE & WHITE CHRISTENING BOWL Qianlong period, circa 1760 European Market Diameter: 21 ¼ inches (54cm) A very large blue and white christening bowl painted to the exterior with ladies and children playing on a terrace, the interior with scattered flower sprays within a composite border.

Bowls of this size are very difficult to make and represent a considerable achievement on the part of the Chinese potters. The tradition has it that these were intended as christening bowls, being big enough to dip the infant entirely though there is no documentary evidence for such use!

REFERENCES: COHEN & COHEN (2000) From Poems To Piglets, p19, Cat 12, a famille rose example with lotus petals, diameter 21 inches.|

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.

Woody Allan (b. 1935)

What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

25.

A BLUE & WHITE RETICULATED BASKET & STAND Qianlong period, circa 1770 European Market Basket: Diameter: 8 3/8 inches (21.3cm) Height: 4 ¼ inches (10.7cm) Stand: Diameter: 9 5/8 inches (23.7cm) A blue and white pierced fruit basket and stand after a European original, painted with a lady seated on rockwork below flowering peonies, and two attendants in a fenced garden.

A very fine and crisp example of this attractive form copied from a Meissen original.

Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years.

William James Durant

27.

A TUREEN, COVER & STAND Jiaqing, circa 1800 Swedish Market Length: 12 ¼ inches (31cm) A blue and white tureen cover and stand of neoclassical design with elaborately modelled swags of ribbons and birds, the knop modelled as a flower, with gilded highlights.

This is a rare classical design that appeared in Scandinavian porcelain in the last decade of the eighteenth century and was almost immediately sent out to be copied in China. Similar examples are known in unglazed earthenware by Rörstrand in Sweden.

The exact origin of the design is not clear but this indicates how quickly ideas and fashions circulated around Europe at the time. It probably began as a French silver model and may have been taken up by French faience and then the Swedish factories.

The speed with which it was copied in China is reminiscent of the modern phenomenon of ultra fashionable designer goods appearing in the markets of the Far East almost before they hit the catwalks and boutiques of Milan or Paris.

REFERENCES: GRANDJEAN, Bredo L. (1965) Dansk Ostindisk Porcelaen, fig 102, Kat. 77, a tureen and cover of similar shape with different moulded swags.

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

Thomas Jefferson

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

George Orwell

28.

A FAMILLE ROSE PUNCH BOWL Daoguang, circa 1845 American Market Diameter: 18 ¾ inches (47.5cm) Exceptionally rare Canton famille rose bowl, the interior painted with the Hongs at Canton, one of them flying the American flag.

This is a remarkable and very rare bowl that shows the foreign factories on the water front at Canton.

The image can be dated to between 1841 when there was a major fire (a regular occurrence in this small area housing so many kilns) and 1849 when an Italianate church was built, which does not seem to be in this image.

During this period the front area was also laid out as the American gardens which explains the profusion of greenery here, as well as the US flag.

The large bowl is otherwise decorated in the elaborate and colourful style of this period, known variously as Rose Canton, Rose Medallion, or Rose Mandarin. Panels of figures are surrounded by borders of the ‘Hundred Butterflies’ or ‘black butterfly’ pattern.

These patterns are difficult to date precisely as they were produced in varying qualities throughout the nineteenth century.

The Hongs in Canton were crucial to the evolution and success of the European trade with China.

Depictions of the Hongs have appeared on porcelain from about 1740 onwards, though examples of this date are very rare and this particular image is not recorded and its source unknown. In the eighteenth century the Europeans were confined to a small area and strongly distrusted by the Chinese. In 1792 Ambassador McCartney attempted to improve matters but was rebuffed by Qianlong.

The balance began to shift after the affair of the Neptune in 1807, where a Chinese customs officer had been killed in a drunken brawl by some sailors. There was a big trial in the English Hall but eventually the Chinese authorities had to back down and the culprits were fined £4 - the Chinese having realised how important the trade was to their own economy. Later in the nineteenth century China was referred to by the European nations as ‘the big melon’ - it was just there to be sliced up.

REFERENCES: HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p29, No 1.32, the interior of a punch bowl with views of the Hongs, dated on the exterior of the bowl to 1832, now in The Bostonian Society, Old State House, Boston.

MUDGE, Jean McLure (1986) Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, p224, figs 373-4, the same bowl of 1832.

NADLER, D (2001) China to Order, p122-3, a fine punch bowl with similar decoration to this one, without the central scene.

COHEN & COHEN (2003) Soldier Soldier, p48, No 24, a hong bowl of 1780 and an outline history of the trade with Canton.

CONNER, Patrick (1986) The China Trade 1600-1860, many images of Canton.

Everything is sold by weight in China, as eggs, fruit, fowls, and even liquids; it is said they will cram their poultry with stones and gravel to increase their weight. In short, if they excel the Europeans in anything, it is in the mystery of cheating and imposing on those they deal with. A young gentleman who had made this voyage [to Canton] relates, that having bought a parcel of hogs off them for the ship’s company, they all died; and he did not doubt but they were killed by something their owners had given them before they came on board; for he observed the very men they bought them off, taking the dead hogs up into their boat after they had been thrown overboard; and no doubt they would make as good a market of them a second time, as if they had been killed by a butcher: for Mr Lockyer tells us, they never scruple exchanging a live hog for a dead one, if the dead beast be but a little larger than the live one. from Thomas Salmon’s Modern History or the Present State of All Nations, Vol I, (3rd Edn, 1744)

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