A Rare Chinese Export Grisaille-Decorated 'Satirical Subject' Punch Bowl, Qing Dynasty, Circa 1785 | 清乾隆 約1785年 墨彩描金西洋人物故事圖大盌

C. Anthony Grey, London, 1990

The caricature on the present example is taken from an engraving by James Gillray, circa 1779, entitled 'Politeness'. This scene appears on at least two other bowls, including the example in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, illustrated and discussed by William R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2012, pp. 328-9, no. 175. Several bowls are also known with an extensive Italianate landscape depicted in grisaille on the reverse, one of which is in the RA Collection, illustrated in Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Vol. 2, London 2011, pp. 220-1, no. 315. A pair of large punch bowls both painted with the 'Battle of the Saintes' on one side, one including an identical scene, is in the Hyde Park Antiques collection and offered in Part I of this sale, lot 33.