Lot 30
30
A RARE CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'TRUMPETER' TEAPOT AND COVER

Details
A RARE CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'TRUMPETER' TEAPOT AND COVER
CIRCA 1740

The lustrous black enamel ground painted on each side with a Moorish musician, one wearing feathered headdress and belted turquoise robe and playing a trumpet hung with a yellow banner, its edges ruffled in the breeze, the other in a yellow robe and red and white hat and blowing a French horn, all between spearhead borders and with gilt quatrefoil motifs enriching the spout, repeated on the cover in a formal arrangement of lambrequins (knop fritted, tiny chips to spout tip, flakes on handle, some wear to black enamel)--7¼in. (18.4cm.) wide

Lot Essay

See D. Howard & J. Ayers, China For the West, London, 1978, vol. I., p. 305, for a discussion of the highly unusual decoration of the 'Trumpeter' pattern, which has often been grouped with the Cornelis Pronk designs for the Dutch East India Co. on the basis of its stylistic detail and sophisticated conception, though no documentary evidence exists to suggest that it was an officially commissioned Pronk design.