Page 37 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain Getty Museum

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eighteenth century when they were superseded by screws,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