A DUTCH DELFT MIXED TECHNIQUE CHINOISERIE PUZZLE JUG (FOPKAN OR SUIJGKAN), CIRCA 1750

Auction Closed

January 21, 06:17 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 25,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF JHR. IR. G.C. (GIJS) SIX VAN WIMMENUM (1892-1975)

A DUTCH DELFT MIXED TECHNIQUE CHINOISERIE PUZZLE JUG (FOPKAN OR SUIJGKAN), CIRCA 1750

of conventional form with pierced neck, painted in colours with panels of Long Elizas, jumping boys and deer in landscape, within petal-shaped cartouches and roundels on a brown ground reserved with leaves and tendrils in blue, the pierced neck with an irregular pattern and painted with a green marbled pattern reserved with flowerheads, the handle with a band of overlapping leaves, incised cross to base

21cm. high, 8¼ in.

The collection of Prof. Jhr. Dr. Jan Six van Hillegom en Wimmenum (1857 - 1926);

Jhr. ir. G.C. (Gijs) Six van Wimmenum (1892 – 1975);

Thence by descent

Wager cups and trick vessels appear in a number of forms in silver, metalware, ceramics and glass. Puzzle jugs were popular items across Europe from the Middle ages through to the 19th century; drinking games were a throw-back to antiquity and were sometimes associated with saint's days. Examples survive in a variety of ceramic bodies and the fashion appears to have reached it's highs, particularly in Northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The piercing to the neck would not allow the drinker to empty the vessel in the conventional way so they would need to know the trick in order to successfully draw the liquid up. Whilst later examples were made in everyday pottery bodies, examples in Italian maiolica, façon-de-venise glass and silver as well as elaboratly crafted delftware with sophisticated decoration, such as the present example, suggests that these were precious items used and admired by a broad range of society from the working man to the merchant and the elite.