A Rare and Important Chinese Export 'Scotsmen' Punch Bowl, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1745-50

Collection of Docteur Julien Pergola

Sotheby's Monaco, June 23, 1986, lot 1138 (cover lot)

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York (acquired from the above)

Wolf Family Collection No. 0855 (acquired from the above on June 23, 1986)

The 'Scotsmen' or 'Highlanders' decoration count as one of the most important and iconic imageries seen on Chinese export art. The figures in the center depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. The source print of the piper is discussed by David Sanctuary Howard, 'Chinese Porcelain of the Jacobites - I', Country Life, January 25, 1973. Howard notes that the piper was taken from an engraving by George Brickham and published on A short history of the Highland Regiment, London, 1743; and the private was also after a drawing by Brickham of the same date. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, and on July 18, 1743, Privates Samuel, Farquar Shaw, Malcolm McPherson were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia, USA, as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialized on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures.

Chinese export punch bowls depicting the 'Scotsmen' pattern are extremely rare, and the two figures are also seen in plates, such as the following lot. According to David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, London, 1978, Vol. I, cat. no. 234, pp 239-240, when discussing a plate bearing the same figures, that at least twenty plates are known, and most showing little to no signs of wear, most likely because they were probably hidden and never used upon the return from China. Five or more punch bowls are known, and some show signs of use. One example, formerly in the collection of J. Jefferson and Anne Weiler Miller, sold at Christie's New York, January 21, 2016, lot 100.