TWO GRISAILLE AND GILT 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' PLATES

CIRCA 1750

Details

TWO GRISAILLE AND GILT 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' PLATES
circa 1750
One depicting 'The Seamstress', a seated woman embroidering in a dark interior by a window revealing buildings in a landscape, the rim with a spearhead band; the other plate depicting 'The Pilgrims on the Island of Cythera', the amorous couple setting out from a dense forest looking towards a ship in the distance, the way being lit by a winged figure of Amor, the well with bianco-sopra-bianco scrolling foliage below a band of spearheads and the border with a gilt shell-scroll band, rim crack and chips
both 9 in. (23 cm.) diam. (2)

Provenance

For the second plate: purchased from Vigneau, Paris.

Lot Essay

See F. and N. Hervout and Y. Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes Dcor Occidental, 1986, fig.6.47, p.131 for a very similar plate to the first in this lot, together with a saucer with this design, fig.6.48. The design of the second plate is directly copied from an engraving of 1708 by Bernard Picart. Several versions of this design are known on Chinese porcelain, and the same print is copied on Meissen porcelain of circa 1730-35, and it is possible that due to the popularity of the Meissen porcelain, orders for the same design were sent to China in circa 1745. See D. Howard and J. Ayers, op.cit., 1978, vol.II, pp.362 and 363, where an identical plate from the Mottahedeh Collection is illustrated as no.354. Another plate is illustrated by F. and N. Hervout and Y. Bruneau, ibid., 1986, fig. 7.51, p.160.

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