拍品专文
A similar pair sold in these Rooms, Lot 101, 9th June 1986.
A similar example with just flowers sold in these Rooms, Lot 337, 9th March 1987.
The Kakiemon porcelain which first arrived in Europe through the Dutch East India trade around the 1660s heralded the beginning of some of the finest Oriental porcelain collections. With the support of Royal patronage the porcelain spread down through the Court to the English House such as Burghley. Its importance was sufficient to warrant French designers, such as Daniel Marot, producing elaborate overmantels so that these porcelains could be displayed prominently in the Country House interior. The archetype of the designs are the jars known as 'Hampton Court jars' from their association with Queen Mary II's collection at Hampton Court.
The earliest mention of such jars is to be found in an account of a sale in Holland in 1680; 'The red assortment was much desired. 36 who pots for cabinets, cost price 2 florins, nine s.sold at Enkuisen for 140 florins' (the reference to red assortment was the term used for polychrome decorated vases in the 17th century).
Queen Mary first visited Hampton Court in 1689 and by her death in December 1694 she had amassed a large collection of porcelain. In an inventory of March 24th, 1696-7 there are listed 780 of china with their exact positions in each of eleven rooms including 'coloured jars of six squares.' Descriptions of the collection can be found in the Travels of Celia Fiennes who visited Hampton Court soon after the Queen's death 'There was the Water Gallery that opened into a balcony to the water and was decked with china...', John Evelyn's diaries (July 13, 1693 and April 23, 1696,) and Defoe's Tore thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 to 1727).
A similar example with just flowers sold in these Rooms, Lot 337, 9th March 1987.
The Kakiemon porcelain which first arrived in Europe through the Dutch East India trade around the 1660s heralded the beginning of some of the finest Oriental porcelain collections. With the support of Royal patronage the porcelain spread down through the Court to the English House such as Burghley. Its importance was sufficient to warrant French designers, such as Daniel Marot, producing elaborate overmantels so that these porcelains could be displayed prominently in the Country House interior. The archetype of the designs are the jars known as 'Hampton Court jars' from their association with Queen Mary II's collection at Hampton Court.
The earliest mention of such jars is to be found in an account of a sale in Holland in 1680; 'The red assortment was much desired. 36 who pots for cabinets, cost price 2 florins, nine s.sold at Enkuisen for 140 florins' (the reference to red assortment was the term used for polychrome decorated vases in the 17th century).
Queen Mary first visited Hampton Court in 1689 and by her death in December 1694 she had amassed a large collection of porcelain. In an inventory of March 24th, 1696-7 there are listed 780 of china with their exact positions in each of eleven rooms including 'coloured jars of six squares.' Descriptions of the collection can be found in the Travels of Celia Fiennes who visited Hampton Court soon after the Queen's death 'There was the Water Gallery that opened into a balcony to the water and was decked with china...', John Evelyn's diaries (July 13, 1693 and April 23, 1696,) and Defoe's Tore thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 to 1727).