Page 32 - Chinese Export Art Christie's New York, Jan 21, 2016

THE SOWELL COLLECTION

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AN ELEPHANT SAUCE TUREEN AND COVER AND TWO STANDS
CIRCA 1785

The sleepy beast with a black and white puppy as knop, the stands
depicting a seated elephant with a mahout, their undersides molded
as leaves

9 in. (23 cm.) long (the stands) (4)

$50,000-70,000

LITERATURE:

op. cit., pp. 192, no.13.1

Sauce tureens modeled in amusing animal or bird forms were
a recurring conceit on 18th century European dining tables.
Elephants were rare in this group. Symbols of the exotic East Indies
to Westerners, elephants had been seen in Europe as early as the
17th century in the form of blue and white kendis. Western ships
brought the actual animals back on rare occasions, including the
Derby family’s America, which carried the first elephant seen in the
States to Salem in 1795. As sauce containers this recumbent form
was obviously practical, but whatever European print (perhaps from
a series depicting life in the Indies?) inspired the scene on the stands
and the modeling of the tureens remains unidentified. A pair was
sold Christie’s New York, 14 October 1999, lot 35.

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