ewer; cover BM-Franks.943

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1680-1720 (circa)
Materials:porcelain, blanc de chine,
Technique:glazed, painted,
Subjects:bird insect
Dimensions:Diameter: 5.60 centimetres (Lid) Height: 16.10 centimetres (Ewer and lid) Height: 15.20 centimetres (Ewer) Height: 2.20 centimetres (Lid) Weight: 0.30 kilograms (Ewer and lid) Weight: 0.25 kilograms (Ewer) Weight: 0.05 kilograms (Lid) Width: 11.80 centimetres (Ewer: handle to spout) Depth: 9 centimetres (Ewer: widest point excluding handle and spout.)

Description:
Chinese porcelain ewer and cover, painted probably in Holland. The pear-shaped ewer is thinly potted and highly translucent; it has a long curved spout and handle and a flat cover with small knob. It is painted on one side with a bird’s nest in a tree and birds perched on the tree and below it, and on the other side with a large flower pot with an exuberantly flowering plant on top of a peacock cage, all painted in colours of the ‘famille rose’, with landscapes indicated in the background in pale rose-pink and other colours.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:The ewer was made at Dehua, Fujian province and, with its flat cover, is unusual in shape. The very finely painted enamel decoration has formerly been attributed to a German workshop but is now considered to have been added in Holland. Other Dehua ewers of this shape with identical decoration are known (Sotheby’s London, 8th July 1969, lot 84 A). See “Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society” vol. 65, London (2000), page 112. Also published in Espir (2005), “European decoration on Oriental porcelain”.