LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE SMALL FAMILLE ROSE 'JESUIT' BALUSTER VASE
late 18th century
Enamelled on each side with a shaped cartouche enclosing a cross and the initials IHS above crossed nails on one side and on the other side a cross and monogram above a crescent moon, reserved on an iron-red cell-pattern ground enriched with flowers and foliage, between iron-red narrow lappets around the foot and ruyi-heads around the neck
4½ in. (11.5 cm.) high, wood cover

Special notice

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price and buyer's premium when purchased by non-EU purchasers.

Lot Essay

This jar bears the initials of the Company of Jesus, which was founded in 1534. These initials were among the very first Western motifs to appear on Chinese porcelain. Late Ming and Transitional blue and white examples can be seen in the British Museum and the Museum of Anastacio Gonçalves, Lisbon. For a blue and white jar and cover with very similar design to the present lot which is in the Musée Guimet, see F. and N. Hervouët and Y. Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, 1986, fig. 11.29. Another blue and white jar with sparser decoration and with 'The Flight into Egypt' on the reverse from the Fundação Abel de Lacerda in the Museu do Caramulo, Portugal, is included in the catalogue of the collection Relação de Obras de Arte, 1985, no.404, and is illustrated by M. Beurdeley, Porcelain of the East India Companies, 1962, cat.235.

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