Page 115 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

The dense decoration of flowers on red
ground, as found on the present lot is rare.
See a jar with related decoration of flowers
and rocks against a red diaper-pattern
ground, Shunzhi, illustrated by T.Canepa and
K.Butler, Leaping the Dragon Gate: The Sir
Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-
Century Chinese Porcelain, London,
2021, p.345. The same jar is illustrated in
Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain from
the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, 1990,
no.60, where the author notes that 'some
pieces of this type were made for the Indian
or Middle Eastern markets. Friedrich Volker
asserts two red rolwagens were given to an
Indian King in 1648'; see ibid., p.107.
According to T.Volker in Porcelain and the
Dutch East India Company: As Recorded
in the Dagh Registers of Batavia Castle,
Those of Hirado and Deshima and other
Contemporary Papers, Leiden, 1971, p.105,
in 1649 the Dutch wrote to Batavia on 31 May
'that they intend to present the King [of Surat]
with...2 large red rolwagens with leaf work in
relief and flowers...' The present lot, also with
a predominately red tone, could therefore,
have been made for the Indian or Middle
Eastern market.

(two views)

THE MARSH COLLECTION | 115