CIRCA 1775, PROBABLY PORTUGUESE, RATO

细节

A CONTINENTAL FAIENCE WATER FOUNTAIN
CIRCA 1775, PROBABLY PORTUGUESE, RATO
The fountain formed as an embowed dolphin with green scales and a long blue dorsal fin between yellow bands, its scrolling tail with a detachable green, yellow and manganese striped fin 'cover', its head with moulded circular eyes, large fins at each side and an open mouth revealing teeth with a circular aperture for a metal spigot, resting on a blue, yellow, green and manganese marbled socle of rectangular section, the fielded panels of the waisted blue-marbled upper part moulded with white paterae and edged with yellow marbled bands, above a moulded band of blue and white ovolo ornament above a green and managanese marbled bands (tip of tail broken through and repaired, chipping to fins, around aperture in teeth and to underside of fountain, very slight chipping to extremities of socle)
31¼ in. (79.3 cm.) high

注意事项

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

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拍品专文

Fountains of this type are known to have been made at Rato. Rinsing hands was an essential part of dining etiquette in noble households by the seventeenth century, and fountains were frequently incorporated in the 'buffet', the multi-tiered displays of plate and glass designed to dazzle guests rather than be practical. As the emphasis on personal comfort grew throughout the eighteenth century, fountains were often used in garde-robes, which functioned as wash closets by the middle of the century, and in 1792 a Sèvres porcelain fountain was even recorded in Louis XVI's map-making room at Versailles. Dolphins, which evoked the goddess Venus, were frequently incorporated in their design, but it is more unusual for a fountain to be entirely in the form of a dolphin.