Page 53 - Chinese Export Porcelain MARCHANT GALLERY 2015

34. Famille rose tea bowl and saucer, painted after an unknown
European engraving with three cherubs amongst rockwork,
one blowing bubbles, the others embracing, beside a stone
pyramid and discarded objects including a coronet, basket,
palette, brush and drumsticks with a mask in the foreground,
encircled by a border of scrolls and leaves with two suns.
The saucer 4 �⁵⁄₁₆ inches, 12.6 cm diameter, the cup 3 3⁄₁₆
inches, 8.1 cm diameter.
Qianlong, circa 1755.

• From the collection of Dr Hardouin, Nantes, western
France.

• Sold by Jacqueline Polles, 3 rue des Saussaies, Paris,
with label.

• A similar saucer is illustrated by J. A. Lloyd Hyde in
Oriental Lowestoft, Chinese Export Porcelain, Porcelaine de
la Cie des Indes, no. 55, plate XVI, pp. 90/1. The author
describes this scene as Les Trois Amours and states that
the decoration is copied exactly from St. Cloud porcelain
after designs by Hubert Robert (1733-1808), the French
artist was famous for scenes with pyramids, figures and
ruins. An example of his work is the pen and black ink
drawing ‘A Roman Capriccio with the Pyramid of Gaius
Cestius’ in The National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.

• A coffee cup and saucer 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. 209, pp. 182/3, where the author notes
‘such designs, clearly sent from Europe, need to be
understood before they can be interpreted, but possibly
represent a collage of Masonry (the pyramid and suns
in the border) and the artist’s palette and actor’s mask.
The intended market is unclear, but the border suggests
continental rather than British origin. Very few examples
are known and possibly only one service was made.’

• A tea bowl and saucer is illustrated by Michael & Ewa
Cohen in the Cohen & Cohen exhibition From Poems
to Piglets, 2000, no. 22, p. 32; two saucers, indicating
the possibility of two tea sets, are illustrated by François
& Nicole Hervouët & Yves Bruneau in La Porcelaine
des Compagnies des Indes, nos. 13.99 & 13.100, p. 321,
where the authors suggest the design is in the manner
of a series of engraving by Nicholas Cochin the younger
(1610-1686), described as Science and Geometry.

• A covered bowl and saucer probably from the same
set, Bequest J. G. A. N. de Vries, The Hague, 1925, is
illustrated by Christiaan J. A. Jörg in Chinese Ceramics in
the Collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, no. 341, p. 292.

• A chocolate pot and cover was included by Yu Chunming
in the Nanchang University Museum Exhibition Jing Yan
(an exhibition of Chinese export porcelain), 2012, no.
32, pp. 148/9.

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