Lot 421
421
A GILT METAL-MOUNTED BLUE AND WHITE FOUNTAIN
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
A GILT METAL-MOUNTED BLUE AND WHITE FOUNTAIN

THE PORCELAIN KANGXI (1662-1722)

Details
A GILT METAL-MOUNTED BLUE AND WHITE FOUNTAIN
THE PORCELAIN KANGXI (1662-1722)
Formed from a two-handled pear-shaped vase on a spreading foot, the loop handles moulded at the highest point with a dragon mask and applied at the lower join to the body with lotus leaf motifs, painted around the body in a bright cobalt blue with linked quatrefoil cartouches of scrolling lotus between ruyi-shaped lappets, and the neck with similar cartouches reserved on a stylised cracked-ice-pattern ground, mounted in gilt metal with a dragon-headed spout and detachable 'leaping fish' tap, pierced four-legged stand, and domed cover incised with a similar design to that on the vase
13½ in. (34.3 cm.) high overall
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

There is a blue and white two-handled jar, with cover, of identical form but with somewhat different decoration, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, illustrated by C.J.A. Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997, p. 262, no. 302. The Rijksmuseum example was bequeathed in 1814 to King William I of Holland by the widow of Jean Theodore Royer (1737-1807) and kept in the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities; in 1883 it was transferred to the Rijksmuseum. Jörg mentions, ibid., that 'This shape is rather rare and seems to have been made exclusively for the Dutch market after a Western silver model for only a very short period. As the piece in the Van Diepen collection at Fraeylemaborg, Slochteren shows, a hole was sometimes drilled in the lower part and a tap added, thus making it into a fountain. Neither of the Rijksmuseum pieces has such an addition'. (The van Diepen example is illustrated by C. J. A. Jörg, A Selection from the Collection of Oriental Ceramics, p. 88, and exhibited at Fraeylemaborg, Slochteren, Aziatische ceramiek uit vijf eeuwen, 1977, catalogue no. 105.

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