A Chinese Blue and White Five-Piece ‘European Subject’ Garniture, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period | 清康熙 青花開光西洋人物圖瓶一組五件

European Private Collection;

Sotheby’s, London, 5 November 2014, lot 338 (part);

Jorge Welsh, London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 1 November 2017.

歐洲私人收藏

倫敦蘇富比2014年11月5日，編號338

Jorge Welsh，倫敦，2017年11月1日

購於上述來源

It is very rare to find a complete garniture of this decoration including beakers. Compare a set from the Ionides Collection, sold in our London rooms, 18 February 1964, lot 278; two covered jars of this design, also from the Ionides Collection, preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Geoffrey Godden, Oriental Export Market Porcelain and its Influence on European Wares, London 1979, pl. 22; and another in the Museum de Sypesteyn, Loosdrecht, in D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chine de Commande, Hilversum 1966, pl. 121.

Adorning each grand vase are four panels depicting noblewomen with hair styled after the Duchesse de Fontanges, mistress of King Louis XIV. At least three of these scenes can be traced back to engravings produced by the famous Bonnart brothers of the rue St. Jacques, Paris (active ca. 1675-1700), who were renowned at the time for their prints portraying the ever-changing fashion of European high society. Compare a smaller jar of this four-paneled design from the Mottahedeh Collection, illustrated by David Howard and John Ayers in China for the West, vol. I, London 1978, pl. 37, together with the prints by the Bonnart brothers from which the designs were taken: ‘Thailie,’ pl. 37c, featuring a lady seated beside an orange tree, and ‘Euphrosyne,’ pl. 37d, a lady beside a fountain, both from a set of prints of ‘The Three Graces’ issued by Robert and Nicolas Bonnart, and ‘l’Odorat’, pl. 37a, showing a lady reclining on a daybed, from a set of the ‘Five Senses’ by Henri Bonnart but with modifications to the background. Although the lady on a swing resembles Henri Bonnart’s ‘l’Air’ from a set of the Elements, Howard and Ayers suggest that variations indicate a different print was probably used.