CIRCA 1745-50

Details

A VERY RARE GRISAILLE AND GILT FIVE-PIECE GARNITURE WITH 'THE SEAMSTRESS'
CIRCA 1745-50
Each vase decorated on each side with an oval panel depicting a lady wearing a gilt dress embroidered with leaf-shaped motifs and flowers in her hair, distracted from her sewing by the harbour scene seen through a window to her left, the heavy curtains swept to one side above her to give her a clear view, the shoulder with grisaille cell-pattern with a gilt surround undulating to form cusped arches above the panels, a narrow band of iron-red and gilt dot-pattern around the neck and above the foot, comprising:
three baluster vases and covers, 11¼ in. (28.5 cm.) high
two slender beaker vases, 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm.) high
- some restoration (5)

Provenance

Purchased from James Galley.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

Although a familiar subject-matter on Chinese export porcelain, the version on this garniture is rare in its variation of design. More commonly the lady has her back to the window and is concentrating on her sewing; the scene through the window is reversed with the buildings on the right and the boats on the left; the fishing basket or container below the window is omitted; and the detailed embroidery on her dress is not often found. The use of a European-subject scene on a garniture is extremely rare, and the present lot may well be a unique special order. Although mostly found on plates, a tea-service with the more usual version of 'The Seamstress' is in the Helena Woolworth McCann collection, illustrated by J. G. Phillips, China-Trade Porcelain, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956, p. 140, pl. 58, and a plate, p.75, colour pl. 9. See Hervouët and Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, p. 131, figs. 6.47 and 6.48 for two plates again with the more usual design.

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