Page 72 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

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A PAIR OF EXTREMELY FINE FAMILLE ROSE OCTAGONAL Magnificent large, covered jars of this kind have no place in the regular
BALUSTER JARS AND COVERS canon of Chinese porcelain production. They mark the highest point
Qianlong period, circa 1740 of fine-quality export taste wares made at Jingdezhen at the request
The two octagonal baluster jars are decorated with attenuated oval of the foreign ‘supercargo’ traders jostling each other along the wide
panels on the side of the body and bell-shaped panels on the lid, each promenades and fenced areas in front of the Western warehouse
containing alternate landscape or floral designs, the ground pattern ‘Hongs’on the Canton waterfront, judiciously barred from setting-up
is a whorl or cloud pattern in sepia, overlaid with multiple red peonies within the walled Chinese city.
with blue enamel leaves, around the neck of the vase are alternating
leaf and pomegranate panels also containing landscape or floral The recessed panels, not at all a natural potter’s shape, suggest
patterns. that European designer’s concept for these porcelain jars lay in large
23 1/2in (59cm) high (2). European vases of some kind, possibly made in marble or another
hardstone as garden ornamentation. There is really nothing in Western
$40,000 - 60,000 ceramics at that date which represented a convincing prototype for
them, except something majestic and ornamental. If the original model
乾隆時期 約1740年 粉彩八方模印開光山水花鳥紋帶蓋將軍瓶一對 is a silver, gold or even bronze vessel, the source of something so large
has not yet been satisfactorily identified.
Published:
Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 64-65, no. 26 Apparently manufactured specifically for the Export market, jars and
vases such as these are archetypal examples of the grandest and
出版： largest pieces of Chinese porcelain which amazed, engrossed and
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁 enthralled Westerners. European buyers were familiar for the most part
64-65，圖版編號26 only with the hugely expensive display pieces made at a few ‘Royal
vanity’ German factories like Meissen, or the tin-glazed earthenware
pottery (not thin translucent Chinese) vessels made at Delft in Holland,
or at an earlier date in the Italian majolica kilns. Chinese ‘pots’ were
radically more interesting for newly rich communities hungry to
impress!

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