CIRCA 1735-45

Details

A PAIR OF RARE FAMILLE ROSE 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' SQUARE BOXES AND COVERS
Circa 1735-45
Each box on a fixed square shallow stand applied at each corner with a small gilt and and blue enamel Buddhistic lion, similar lions at the corners of the shallow domed cover, surmounted by a larger lion seated on an iron-red and gilt floral cushion forming the finial, one side of each box enamelled with a European lady and gentleman seated at a circular table drinking tea, the opposite side with the figures reversed at the table, the third side with two standing European musicians, one playing a lyre and the other an oboe, and the fourth side with the musicians playing violas, each scene enclosed in a dense floral and leaf-frond border, the covers similarly enamelled, the fixed stands decorated in iron-red and gilt with lotus heads on a hexagonal cell-pattern ground repeated on the vertical rims of the covers, one cover restored, box bases with some lions replaced
17½ in. (19 cm.) square, 9½ in. (24 cm.) high (2)

Special notice

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

Lot Essay

Although the design of European musicians within distinctive floral and leaf surrounds are commonly found on plates and dishes, these boxes are extremely rare. An almost identical pair of boxes and covers was sold in Monaco, 23 June 1986, lot 1106. It would appear that the only other published boxes of this type are the slightly larger pair, without covers, in the Winterthur Museum, illustrated by Arlene M. Palmer, A Winterthur Guide to Chinese Export Porcelain, 1976, pp.80 and 81, fig.45, and by F. and N. Hervoüet and Y. Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, 1986, figs. 7.13 and 8.13; interestingly the Winterthur boxes have four short bracket feet, which this pair and the Monaco pair appear never to have had.

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