CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, CIRCA 1740

This design is probably after a design by the Dutch draughtsman Cornelis Pronk (1691-1754), although no actual drawing has been discovered. Pieces from this service have slight variations in the gilt spearheads and border decoration, which would indicate more than one order. Two such variations are to be seen in the two saucers and a coffee-cup from the Hodroff Collection, illustrated by D. S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, p.178, no. 202, where Mr. Howard explains that the coffee-cup and saucer with the more elaborate border were probably in the first order, and the slightly simplified and therefore less expensive border on the other saucer was probably made for a repeat order. A bowl, similar to the present lot, but without cover, was in the Mottahedeh Collection, illustrated by Howard and Ayers, China for the West, London and New York, 1978, vol. I, p. 305, no. 299. A milk-jug and cover with the more elaborate border is in the Collection Bal, Zeeuws Museum, Middleburg, illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain - Chine de Commande, London, 1974, fig. 92. A plate in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, is illustrated by Hervouët and Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, p.191, fig.8.20, together with a plate of the same design but with a very rare white border and the figures reversed, from the same Museum, op.cit., fig. 8.21. A plate, a saucer-dish and two teabowls and saucers with various border decorations, from the Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann Collection, were sold at Christie's London, 10 April 2002, lots 421 - 424. See also A 'Trumpeter' plate from the Miller Collection was sold Christie's New York, 21 January 2016, lot 60, and another from the Lebel Collection, 17 January 2019, lot 534. A similar covered bowl was sold at Christie's London, 11 May 2004, lot 16.