A RARE FAMILLE VERTE DRUG JAR

CIRCA 1735

Details

A RARE FAMILLE VERTE DRUG JAR
CIRCA 1735
The albarello of typical form, enameled front and back with a heart-shaped panel pierced by arrows and surmounted by a prelate's hat suspending swags of rope, flanked by large red blooms and butterflies
8½ in. (21.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 8 December 1964, lot 102.
The Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Mottahedeh Collection; Sotheby's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 351.

Literature

Fuchs and Howard, Made in China, p. 156, no. 100.
Howard and Ayers, China for the West, vol. II, p. 560, no. 578.

Exhibited

Virginia Museum, 1981-82.

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Lot Essay

The interior of the heart shape was intentionally left blank so the apothecary could fill in what type of drug or powder it contained. This 'sacred heart' as well as the prelate's hat suggest that the jar was most likely made for use in a monastery or convent. For a nearly identical example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see J.M. Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, New York, 1986, p. 51, no. 58.

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