Page 103 - Bonhams Asian Art May2016 UK

259

A PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE
‘SCHEVENINGEN’ DISHES
Kangxi
Each dish with a pastoral scene from a
European original, the flat rims with a pie-
crust moulding, painted with a wave-pattern,
the underside with floral sprigs. 20cm (7
7/8in) diam. (2).

£1,000 - 1,500
CNY9,200 - 14,000
HK$11,000 - 16,000

According to D.S. Howard’s Choice of The 259
Private Trader, p. 44, this design is thought
to date from circa 1700-1720 and to have
been copied from a drawing by Frederick van
Frytom (1652-1702). Similar examples were
also manufactured in Japan, presumably
in Arita, and these are illustrated in Soame
Jenyns’s Japanese Porcelain, pl. 19A, where
Jenyns shows the Kangxi and Arita types
side-by-side. For some time, this design was
known as ‘Deshima Island’, but the landscape
and church spire are now thought to imply
that the location is intended to be somewhere
in the Netherlands. Howard also concludes
against the Deshima Island theory, stating
that the location is ‘considered to be near
Scheveningen in Holland’.

260

A BLUE AND WHITE ‘ADAM AND EVE’
SAUCER DISH
Kangxi
The central roundel delicately painted with
two figures in a garden surrounded with
animals and clouds, the flaring rim with a floral
scroll, the underside with further sprigs and
an apocryphal Chenghua six-character mark
within a double-circle.
16cm (6 1/4in) diam.

£1,800 - 2,200
CNY17,000 - 20,000
HK$20,000 - 24,000

For a similar example of this rare dish, see
D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export
Porcelain: Chine De Commande, 1974, pl.
234. The author rightly places a question
mark beside the iconography here, thought to
portray Adam and Eve. Normally, we should
expect the Serpent and the Apples to be
more in evidence, and neither are apparent.
Perhaps the presence of the goats and the
partially disrobed heroine, suggests a scene
more in keeping with classical literature or
mythology. Interestingly, when Odysseus
finally arrives home in Ithaca, he is met by the
Goddess, Athene in the guise of a Shepherd,
and carrying a javelin. Athene alters her
appearance into a beautiful woman during her
conversation with Odysseus, a narrative that
would appear to fit the scene here.

260

ASIAN ART | 101