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411.
GARNITURE
PORCELAIN DECORATED IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE
JINGDEZHEN KILNS, JIANGXI PROVINCE
QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722), CA. 1715-1720
ARMS: LANCASTRE
VASES: HEIGHT 17.8 CM; RIM DIAMETER 6.9 CM;
FOOT DIAMETER 5.6 CM
HEIGHT 17.9 CM; RIM DIAMETER 6.9 CM;
FOOT DIAMETER 5.6 CM
JARS: HEIGHT 19.6 CM; RIM DIAMETER 4 CM;
FOOT DIAMETER 6 CM
HEIGHT 19.6 CM; RIM DIAMETER 4 CM; FOOT DIAMETER 6 CM
HEIGHT 20.2 CM; RIM DIAMETER 3.6 CM;
FOOT DIAMETER 5.5 CM
INV. NO. 122
Five piece garniture consisting of three jars
and two vases with high, wide, trumpet-
shaped necks, all with ovoid body rising from
raised leaves above the high, flared and
domed foot, with a ridge and ring on the
upper part. Made in very white porcelain and
coated in an almost clear glaze, except for
the ridge and the inside of the foot. The
covers of the jars have been restored.
The decoration, painted in several shades of
deep, luminous underglaze cobalt blue,
displays on opposite sides, the Lancastre coat
of arms: peninsular shield; ?, four square
‘escutcheons’ argent, each charged with five
roundels azure; bordure ? filled with
geometrical design. Crest: a pelican azure.
Fanciful mantling azure, 1 consisting of stems
with clusters of berries and leaves
resembling vine leaves. On the foot are two
rodents (dormice?) alternating with two
clusters of berries, a motif that is repeated
on the necks of the jars and vases. Inside the
vase rims, near the edge, a border of leaves.
On the ring surrounding the foot, a spiral
scroll. On the base of each piece, as mark, a
lingzhi,
the mushroom of immortality, in
underglaze blue.
As with the dish cat. 409, the coat of arms
has been attributed to D. Pedro de Lancastre
Silveira Valente Castelo Branco Vasconcelos
Barreto e Meneses (1697-1752), 5th Count of
Vila Nova de Portimão, son of the 4th Count.
Nuno de Castro maintains that this set was
part of the first service for D. Pedro de
Lancastre, and that two other services were
known to have been rejected at the time due
to the number of inaccuracies in the coat of
arms. 2
The reference to services may be
exaggerated given the fact that the only
pieces known with the coat of arms
represented in this way are two ewers, one
of which is in this collection (cat. 410), and
vessels of this type.
Garnitures were common in European
interior decoration and were normally
displayed on mantelpieces, in china cabinets,
mirrors and above all in display cabinets, a
piece of furniture which had drawers in the
bottom part and glass doors above,
surmounted by a curved pediment with five
and sometimes seven corbels or plinths to
exhibit the various pieces of the garnitures.
These sets, whose components all had
identical decoration, were not known before
1680. 3
Other jars similar to these are known, one in
the M. H. Castro Collection, Lisbon 4 and
another in the Fundação Oriente, Lisbon. 5
Provenance:
Private collection, Oporto (three jars and one of the
vases)
1 Heraldic description by MLCB.
2 Castro, 1987, p. 51.
3 Jörg and Flecker, 2001, p. 43.
4 Castro, ibid.
5 Pinto de Matos
et al
., 1998, pp. 210-11, no. 41.
26 .
ARMORIAL CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN