QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1738-40

The unusual shape of this vase was conceived by Dutch artist, Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759), who was employed by the Dutch East India Company to produce porcelain designs from about 1734 until about 1740. Pronk incorporated a number of these designs, details from botanical studies by the Dutch-Swiss botanist, Marie Sybille Merian (1646-1717). A very small number of these meticulously enameled vases, their shapes inspired by archaic Chinese bronzes, survive.