215.
DINNER SERVICE
PORCELAIN DECORATED IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND
FAMILLE ROSE
ENAMELS AND GOLD
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736–1795),
CA. 1770–1780
INV. NO. 699
Part service of fifty items, all with foliate
rims, except for the fruit basket, which is
moulded with openwork walls and upright
handles. The sauce boats and their stands
shaped like scalloped leaves; the tureens
have a slightly undulating form with handles
modelled as lotus flowers on a stem; the
cover, gently ribbed on the top, has a finial
modelled in the shape of a fruit with leaves
and a stem. The ovoid teapot has a spout and
a loop handle, both moulded to suggest
bamboo. The candlesticks have a cylindrical
holder and slender stem with thick raised
rings, and a shallow domed and stepped foot
with a scalloped edge.
Made in white porcelain and coated with a
bluish glaze, except for the foot ring and
base of the stands, which turned orange
during the firing.
The decoration combines underglaze cobalt
blue and
famille rose
enamels, and includes a
group of three-lobed leaves, two in
underglaze blue, at opposite sides of the
design, and two others in turquoise, yellow
and green, with finely outlined veins in
darker shades of the same colours. The leaves
adorned on the lower part with a large
flower with strongly serrated and slightly
curled petals in bright pink, outlined in a
darker shade. Near the tip of the yellow leaf,
perched on a curved twig with some leaves,
a colourful pheasant holding a small spray of
flowers in its beak, its crested head turned
back as if to watch another pheasant, who
returns its gaze from behind a blue leaf on
the other side of the composition. The rims
of the plates and the stands and the edge of
the shaped pieces decorated with flowers,
fruit-tree branches in blossom and two
rodents, probably squirrels, one standing on
a branch with red and white berries, the
other holding a berry in its paws, the lower
part of its body hidden by the rim. The leaves
and the undecorated areas filled with small
flower sprays in iron red, yellow, pink and
green. The scalloping of the rim and the foot
ring of the candlesticks is outlined in blue,
framing the brightly coloured decoration and
accentuating the whiteness of the rim.
The inside of the plates and stands
56 .
CHINESE PORCELAIN WITH WESTERN SHAPES