KANGXI

Wall fountains of this kind are clearly based on some European prototype, probably metal and therefore possibly brass or bullion for the Dutch market, since these tend to apparently date to the late 17th Century, when there was still a flourishing export market in famille verte to Holland through the V.O.C. Although it has not been proved conclusively, it seems likely that famille verte wall fountains fall into two categories. The first is like the one in the present lot, decorated with large human figures, which are not particularly carefully tailored to the proportion of the body, and have tiered covers without any back-plate; there is also no evidence that they were ever intended to have basins underneath them to catch water or wine. Possibly as a result of the fact that they did not therefore fulfill the same role as European wall fountains and basins, it appears that a second design evolved fairly shortly afterwards into a more recognizable style of fountain, with a back-plate formed as double leaping dolphins behind a simpler domed flat-backed cover in better proportion to the body, and frequently still found with the original matching ribbed oval basin. This latter category are normally decorated either with scattered crabs, shrimps and other crustacea in tones of aubergine, or with birds on branches. An example of this latter type, unusual in that the basin was extremely well matched with the body and cover, was sold in these Rooms, 15 June 1998, lot 321, and is now in an American public collection. Compare the pair of wall fountains of this second group decorated with birds in the Museum of Anastácio Gonalves, Lisbon, illustrated by M. A. Pinto de Matos, Chinese Export Porcelain, 1996, no.125, and a single fountain with basin and decorated with fish and crustacea ibid., no.126.