A CHINESE EXPORT MEISSEN-STYLE TEABOWL AND SAUCER circa 1740

each painted within a central roundel, the teabowl also around the exterior, in the manner of Johann Gregor Höroldt with a chinoiserie scene depicting two insects flitting above a man holding a dish of fruit and standing between an inquisitive child and a table set with vessels and utensils amidst flowering shrubbery, the interior rim with a gilt scrollwork border, and the footrims gilded.  The saucer with small chips.

The collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, New York, no. 783, sold, Sotheby's, New York, January 30, 1985, lot 296

Lincoln, Massachusetts, DeCordova Museum, The China Trade, Romance and Reality, June 22 to September 16, 1979
Richmond, The Mottahedeh Collection, 1981-82
New York, China for the West, 1984

David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, Vol. II, pp. 524 and 525, no. 533

Teabowl with worn gilding on rim edge and interior, 1" haircrack at 6 o'clock running through the standing man on the exterior, minor wear to gilding on the footrim; saucer with wear to the edge from 2-5:30, 3mm chip at 11 o'clock, 2mm chip at 5 o'clock, 1mm chip at 6:30 and another at 8 o'clock, 2mm chip at 7 o'clock, 1/4 " section of stacking wear in roundel at 10:30, saucer with two Mottahedeh stickers.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This style of chinoiserie decoration was introduced at the Meissen porcelain factory possibly as early as 1722 by its most famous and inventive painter, Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775), who worked there from 1720 to 1765, and it remained popular through the 1740s.  It is most likely that the decoration on this teabowl and saucer was taken directly from a Meissen example rather than from a painted or engraved source, and while no drawing serving as the precise source for the Meissen original can be found among the Höroldt drawings in Das Meissener Musterbuch für Höroldt-Chinoiserien (the Schulz-Codex, Munich, 1978), two sketches of an adult and child bear a reasonable similarity: pl. 13 (bottom, left), and pl. 16 (top, center).

A covered sugar bowl with this decoration is illustrated by Krahl and Harrison-Hall, p. 191, no. 82, where the authors compare it to a Meissen teapot of the 1720s.  An 18-piece tea service in this pattern was sold in these rooms on January 29, 1987, lot 474, and is now in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.