Page 30 - Chinese Export Porcelain MARCHANT GALLERY 2015

18. Pair of famille rose plates, each heightened in gilt with bianco-sopra-bianco, white enamel floral borders, painted in the
Meissen style with a central figure wearing a cloak and crown, identified as the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great (1672-
1725), overseeing the loading of barrels, accompanied by two small figures and a dog and a large figure rolling a barrel,
all in a European river landscape scene.
9 inches, 22.8 cm diameter.
Early Qianlong, circa 1740.
• From the collection of Dr Hardouin, Nantes, western France.
• A similar plate is illustrated by David S. Howard in The Choice of the Private Trader, the Private Market in Chinese
Export Porcelain Illustrated from the Hodroff Collection, no. 71, p. 85, where the author notes ‘The scene is painted in
the manner of Meissen hausmaler, ‘home painters’; for about two decades from 1740, Chinese Porcelain was painted
in this manner after samples taken to China, often with scenes within shaped cartouches intricately decorated with
gold and enamel scrollwork. The volume of specially commissioned porcelain in the style of Meissen was, for a time,
perhaps third only to painting after engravings and armorials.’
• Peter the Great (1672-1725), travelled incognito to Amsterdam in 1697 under the name Peter Maikhailov. Later
he visited the small port of Zaandam where he spent some time studying ship building. Once his real identity was
discovered, he went back to Amsterdam. Officially, he only returned to Holland in 1717. There are at least five
known variations of this subject, all painted in the manner of Meissen hausmaler style.
• A pair is illustrated by Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos in The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics, A Collector’s Vision,
Volume Two, no. 343, p. 263; a plate is illustrated in colour by François & Nicole Hervouët & Yves Bruneau in La
Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes, no. 15.54, pp. 360/1, where the authors illustrate three other variations.

30