Page 37 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

FIG. IB

MARKS None. Given their unusual design the mounts on these
bowls can be attributed to a known maker. Greyhounds
COMMENTARY of the same form appear on the silver-gilt mounts of a
One leaf has been lost from the finial of one lid. Chinese blue-and-white brush holder (circa 1630-40)
A very similar pair of lidded bowls, said to be of por- in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 2 These
celain of the Kangxi dynasty (1662-1722) and mounted mounts date to about 1665-70 and bear the maker's
in neoclassical mounts probably of Viennese origin, is in mark WH (for Wolfgang Howser) above a cherub. The
the collection of the prince of Liechtenstein. 1 greyhounds reappear on the silver-gilt handles of a red
The hinged and pinned joints on the mounts of glass bowl in Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, mounted
these bowls were a traditional method of attachment in as a two-handled cup and stamped with Howser's mark. 3
early metalwork. They remained in use until the mid- Another hound of similar form with its tail wrapped
eighteenth century when they were superseded by screws, around its body appears on the handle of a silver ewer
which were easily hidden by the curvilinear features of in a still life painted by Meiffren Comte (circa 1630-
rococo mounts. The mounts are not cemented to the por- 1705) at the Chateau de Versailles. 4
celain, as was the practice in Paris. Wolfgang Howser was active in England from
about 1660 to 168 8. A member of a Zurich goldsmithing

24 PAI R OF L I D D E D B O W L S