QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1736-1738

This design was drawn up by the Dutch draughtsman Cornelis Pronk in 1734. It was the first drawing he made for the Dutch East India Company and was sent, via Batavia, to both China and Japan to be copied onto porcelain. Services with this design are found in Chinese Imari, in blue and white, and only rarely in the famille rose palette. See C.J.A. Jörg, Pronk Porcelain, Groningen, 1980, pp.14-18, and pp. 60-73, for a full discussion of this design. The original drawing is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

See also lot 51 in this sale, for a blue and white dish, the design of which may have been the inspiration for Pronk's design (cf. Jörg, op.cit., p. 61, fig. 6.