A RARE SMALL BLUE AND WHITE PORTUGUESE ARMORIAL VASE

CIRCA 1715-20

Details

A RARE SMALL BLUE AND WHITE PORTUGUESE ARMORIAL VASE
circa 1715-20
Strongly painted in dark cobalt blue on either side with a coat-of-arms below an eagle with outspread wings, separated by bunches of fruiting plantain above an unusual petal-moulded band, the splayed foot below a band of classic scroll with squirrel and grape vine design, the neck with clusters of grapes, neck reduced, shallow chip to foot
6 in. (17 cm.) high, neck mounted in silver

Sale room notice

Please note that there is a hairline crack to the body (from shoulder to above lappet band, extending 11 cm. at max.).

Lot Essay

The arms are those of Dom Pedro de Lancastre Silveira Valente, 5th Count of Vila Nova de Portimo (1697 - 1752). For a similar vase, see N. de Castro, op.cit., 1988, p.51, where the author explains that the arms on this service are in fact both wrongly interpreted and incomplete and that two services of similar date which were made for this family were rejected due to these errors. He illustrates a second service with more accurate arms on p.52. A garniture of three small vases from this service was in the Cecil Henry Bullivant Collection, sold Phillips, London, 22 March, 1988, lot 339, where the arms were wrongly attributed to an English family; and another vase, complete with cover, was sold Sotheby's, London, 27 October and 1 November, 1989, lot 457.

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