CIRCA 1735

Chinese porcelain decorated with this design was almost certainly made for the Dutch market and can be found decorated in both underglaze blue and gilt, as in the present lot, and in famille rose enamels. The design has probably been taken from a European botanical drawing and is in the style of the Dutch-Swiss botanist, Maria Sybille Merian (1646-1717), who travelled extensively to the Dutch West Indies and who made drawings for a book first published in Holland in 1705, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, and in France in 1771 as Histoire Gnrale des Insectes de Surinam et de toute l'Europe. It has also been suggested that the border design, and indeed the flowers and butterflies, are related to designs by Cornelis Pronk, the Dutch artist also working during this period. Examples from both services were exhibited, Taibei, 1994, Ancient Chinese Trade Ceramics from The British Museum, Catalogue, no.80, pp. 186 and 187. Enamelled examples can be found in the Rijksmuseum, illustrated by C.J.A. Jrg, Chinese Ceramics, 1997, no.334, p.287; in the Hodroff Collection, illustrated by D. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, 1994, no.60; and in the Mottahedeh Collection, illustrated by D. Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, 2 vols., 1978, vol.1, no.298, pp. 304-5, together with a vase of very similar design forming part of a five-piece garniture, which the authors point out is very closely related to the Pronk design known as 'The Arbour' pattern.