A SMALL EUROPEAN-SUBJECT PAINTED ENAMEL RECTANGULAR EWER AND COVER

Details

A SMALL EUROPEAN-SUBJECT PAINTED ENAMEL RECTANGULAR EWER AND COVER
QIANLONG

Three sides painted in famille rose and iron-red enamels with European figures in landscape settings, perhaps depicting scenes from the Bible, the fourth facet painted with flowers surrounding the base of the curved spout painted with butterflies and insects, all reserved on a ground of yellow diaper, with panels of flowers and blue diaper on the flat shoulder from which the tall, arched handle issues, the domed cover with everted rim and painted with foliate sprays below a knop finial, raised on four bracket supports (some restoration)
7 3/8in. (18.7cm.) high

Lot Essay

Two ewers of this form with circular necks rather than rectangular, as in the present example, were included in the exhibition, Chinese Painted Enamel, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, June-July, 1978, Catalogue, p. 61, no. 70

The shape of these ewers can also be seen in glazed biscuit examples of the Kangxi period, such as the ewer illustrated by Gorer and Blacker, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstones, vol. II, London, 1911, pl. 183 (top left)