Commissioned in 1735, 'The Doctors' Visit to the Emperor' is the second design drawn by Cornelis Pronk for the Dutch East India Company, the first being 'La Dame au Parasol' in 1734. Due to the expense of transferring the subject onto porcelain, the volume of Pronk's work is small and only two orders of this design were believed to have been placed: the first was carried to the Netherlands on the Hogersmilde at the end of 1738 followed by the second order in the next year.

Cf. A similar bottle formerly in the Jarras Collection, sold in these Rooms, 13 June 1990, lot 91; the example from the Gemeente Museum, The Hague, which is illustrated on the front cover of C.J.A. Jorg, op.cit., 1980; another, formerly in the C.T. Loo Collection, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, op.cit., cat.125, p.178; and a third illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh-Scheurleer, op.cit., fig. 201; see also D. S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, no.284, p.240 for a vase forming part of a garniture, painted in underglaze blue with the same design. For famille rose examples of different shapes with this design, cf. D. Howard and J. Ayers, op.cit., vol.I, design 3, p.294; C.J.A. Jorg, op.cit., 1989, p.143, no.47; G.C. Williamson, op.cit., pl.XLVI; and D. Howard and J. Ayers, op.cit., vol.I, p.300, no.294 for a cup and saucer with a slightly simpler design than the original, showing only three figures.