THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN NOBLE FAMILY
TWO IMPORTANT LARGE FAMILLE VERTE OVAL MONTEITHS

KANGXI

细节
TWO IMPORTANT LARGE FAMILLE VERTE OVAL MONTEITHS
kangxi
Each supported on four claw and ball feet and applied with two mask handles suspending fixed rings below the crenellated rim, enamelled on both sides of the body with elaborate blossoming tree peony between two flower sprays below various sprays on each of the lobes at the rim, the interior of one with a large carp amidst smaller fish, crustacea and plants below fish at the sides and rim, the interior of the other with a pair of ducks amidst a profusion of large flowering lotus below carp and flower sprays at the sides and cranes in flight at the rim, one with handles restored, other with only loose-rings restored
21.5in. (55cm.) wide (2)
展览
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, Porcelanas Compañia de las Indias, 1969, Cat.153 and 154, pl.XLV

拍品专文

Monteiths are more frequently found in the form of a circular bowl and were used for chilling wineglasses which were suspended from the crenellated rim into ice. This oval larger version was probably used for chilling bottles as well. The monteith, named after an eccentric Scot, Lord Monteith, whose cloak hem was notched in the same way, was reported to have been invented in England in 1683 with silver examples being made the following year; from around 1710, the Dutch were producing versions in Delft ware. The claw and ball feet of the above examples may have derived from mahogany furniture examples which came into use from around 1715. It is interesting to note that there is a small amount of pink enamel on the handles of one of these monteiths, which would indicate that they were made during the end of the Kangxi period.
Cf. the similar monteith in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kodansha Series, vol.11, colour pl.25 and referred to by C. Le Corbeiller, op.cit., p.37; another from the M. Serge Blazy Collection, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, op.cit., p.160, cat.52; and two illustrated by A & J Speelman in Oriental Art, Catalogue, no.19.

A single monteith, in the verte Imari palette, of similar proportions to the present lot, but without the feet and handles, was sold in Sotheby's Monaco, 5 March 1989, lot 331.