A DUTCH-DECORATED GERMAN PORCELAIN OCTAGONAL PLATE WITH THE 'SHIBA ONKO' MOTIF, probably Meissen porcelain, gilt and painted in colours in the Kakiemon palette, decorated with two Chinamen and a head in a bowl beside a bamboo tree (shochikubai), two birds flying above them, the sloping ledge with a continuous band of chrysanthemums and foliage, the edge brown, first half 18th Century

Details

A DUTCH-DECORATED GERMAN PORCELAIN OCTAGONAL PLATE WITH THE 'SHIBA ONKO' MOTIF, probably Meissen porcelain, gilt and painted in colours in the Kakiemon palette, decorated with two Chinamen and a head in a bowl beside a bamboo tree (shochikubai), two birds flying above them, the sloping ledge with a continuous band of chrysanthemums and foliage, the edge brown, first half 18th Century
circa 19 cm wide

Lot Essay

The 'Hob in the Well' was the title given to this design by the Chelsea factory, based on a farce written by Colley Cibber in 1715 entitled 'Flora' or 'Hob in the Well'. It illustrates an eleventh-Century chinese story in which a boy was rescued from drowning by the quick action of his friend Sze-ma-Kwang (Shiba Onko) who broke the large water jar in which the boy had fallen.
A Meissen bowl with similar Shiba Onko motifs in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

See illustration

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