514.
TWO WINE COOLERS AND A
DISH
PORCELAIN DECORATED IN
FAMILLE ROSE
ENAMELS
JINGDEZHEN KILNS, JIANGXI PROVINCE
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795), CA. 1745
WINE COOLERS: HEIGHT 18.5 CM;
DIAMETER OF RIM 19.9 CM
DISH: HEIGHT 6 CM; DIAMETER OF RIM 46.5 CM;
DIAMETER OF FOOT 27 CM
INV. NOS. 406/1 AND 406/2
Cylindrical wine coolers with a raised ring
below the straight rim, two shell-shaped
handles, and convex base with concave
centre. Large dish with rounded cavetto, and
wide, flat, sloping rim. All made in very white,
thick porcelain with an almost clear glaze,
except for the base of the coolers and the
foot ring of the dish. All have a brown rim.
The decoration is painted in unusual shades
of
famille rose
enamels: opaque and bright
iron red, blue, green, pink, white, aubergine,
yellow and black, with iron red and blue
predominating. There are two European style
motifs that are repeated twice on the
outside of the wine coolers and twice on the
rim of the dish. One has a central cartouche
with eagles beneath a small crown of
sunflower petals, flanked by flowers that
include peonies, daisies, flower buds and
berries, and the other has a cartouche with a
carp swimming over aquatic plants among
Chinese fruits and berries. In the centre of
the dish a large bouquet of peonies, and on
the back, three flowering stems in iron red.
The inside base of the wine coolers is
decorated with a chrysanthemum, and there
is a lozenge diaper border on the rim, both
in iron red. There is a lozenge chain border
round the rim of the dish and also round the
raised ring of the wine coolers, above which
is an indented band. Above the base of the
wine coolers a serrated border.
The decoration is European-inspired, but
there has been speculation regarding the
symbolism of the fish and the eagle. In the
nineteenth century it was believed that
they represented Madame de Pompadour
(1721-1764) and her liaison with Louis XV,
king of France (r. 1715-1774), her maiden
name being Jeanne Antoinette Poisson and
the eagle being the symbol of the French
king. Despite Madame de Pompadour’s
known taste for Chinese objects as well as
porcelain, no such service ordered from
China is mentioned either in the inventory
made after her death, in April 1764, nor in
the sale catalogue of the estate of her
brother and heir, Abel-François Poisson
VAndières, Marquis of Marigny and Ménars. 1
Another theory suggests that these dinner
services were amongst the presents received
by Jeanne-Antoinette on the occasion of her
marriage to Charles-Guillaume Lenormant
d’Étoilles (1717-1799) in March 1741,
supposedely offered by the groom’s uncle,
Charles François Le Normant de Tournehem
(1648-1751), former ambassador to Sweden,
one of the high financiers responsible for the
indirect royal taxation and director of the
French East India Company. It is said that
Tournehem was Jeanne-Antoinette’s mother’s
lover and could even be her natural father,
having taken a protective role towards the
Poisson family. He is said to have claimed
that although Jeanne-Antoinette was married
to his nephew, she was also ‘un morceau du
Roi’ (king’s game). 2 In fact, Jeanne-Antoinette
was known by her family as
Reinette
(small
queen), because even as a child she was
passionately fond of King Louis XV.
Apart from being a magnificent service due
to the rarity and variety of pieces with this
design – jars, vases, 3 ewers, platters, 4
tureens, square salad bowls, cruet stands,
wine coolers, chamber pots,
bourdaloues
5 –
there is no doubt that this was an important
private order, probably French. This
possibility is further enhanced because many
objects were decorated with French ormolu
mounts and also because a considerable
number of wares from the ‘Madame de
Pompadour’ services are to be found in
museums around France, where the pattern
was copied by the Samson factory
established by Edmé Samson in 1845 in Paris.
There are pieces from this service in various
French museums: Musée Guimet (inv. G473),
Musée des Arts decoratifs, Bordeaux (inv.
3885), Musée de Saint-Omer (from the
Dupuis endowment) and Musée Grobet
Labadit, Marseille (inv. GL 3310), 6 as well as in
the former Mottahedeh Collection. 7
Beurdeley mentions a pot-pourri vase in the
Louis de Chollet Collection, Paris, 8 and Leite
published a dish from the collection of Maria
Helena and Luiz Fernando Kehl. 9
1 Mézin, 2002, p. 65, no. 44.
2 Jones, 2002, p. 21.
3 Beurdeley, 1982 (4th edition), p. 198, cat. 190.
4 Mézin, ibid.
5 Howard, 1994, p. 229, no. 271; Fuchs II, 2005, p. 158,
no. 102.
6 Mézin, ibid.
7 Howard and Ayers, 1978, vol. II, p. 443, no. 449.
8 Beurdeley, ibid.
9 Leite, 1986, pp. 136-37, no. 55.
244 .
ARMORIAL CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN