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Lot Essay
No other famille rose ships appear to be recorded. Though combining both Chinese and Western details, the present vessel is clearly meant to be European, as evidenced by the long-haired gentlemen on board and the rigging of the sails. For small Chinese ships in biscuit-glazed verte enamels see Sargent, The Copeland Collection, pp. 76-78; an example with Westerners illustrated by du Boulay (Christie's Pictoral History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 289) and sold Christie's, London, 13 July 1959 and again Christie's, New York, 14 October 1999, lot 21; the example in the von Klemperer Collection exhibited in "Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst", Berlin, 12 January - 2 April 1929; and the example with Westerners formerly from the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 23 June 1986, lot 1054.
By the 1730s a fashion for ship models as table centerpieces was well-established in Europe; examples in enamel and precious metals, sometimes quite large and elaborate, known as nefs, had been made since at least the early 17th century (see the parcel-gilt example circa 1620 sold Christie's, London, 11 July 2003, lot 158).
By the 1730s a fashion for ship models as table centerpieces was well-established in Europe; examples in enamel and precious metals, sometimes quite large and elaborate, known as nefs, had been made since at least the early 17th century (see the parcel-gilt example circa 1620 sold Christie's, London, 11 July 2003, lot 158).