Lot Essay
An identical pair of vases is in the Long Gallery at Osterley House, and are most likely to be the ones mentioned by Sophie de la Roche in her diary during a visit to Osterley in 1786: There are tremendous Japanese vases in there also, large enough to conceal Carl (her younger brother). See Anthony du Boulay, The Porcelain at Osterley, Apollo, April 1995, p.19.
Famille rose vases of this size and painted with phoenix amongst rockwork and flowers can, in the main, be divided into two distinctive groups: those, as in the present lot, with a narrow iron-red band around the shoulder and iron-red whorls around the foot; and those without the iron-red band with the elaborate neck design extending over the shoulder. Pairs of vases of the former group, very similar to the present lot, were sold in these Rooms on several occasions: on 6 June 1957, lot 21 (from the collection of Lt.Col. A. Heywood-Lonsdale, M.C.); on 28 July 1975, lot 182 (from the collection of Edmund de Rothschild, Esq., T.D.); on 10 and 11 June 1974, lot 286 and again on 27 June 1977, lot 85.
A pair of vases from the latter group, i.e. without the iron-red bands, can be found at Polesden Lacey, Surrey, The National Trust Guide Book, 1994. Compare the single vase from this group in the collection of The Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville, illustrated by George C. Williamson, op.cit., , Tokyo, 1970, pl. LVII; and another from the Bal Collection, Zeeuws Museum, Middleburg, illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, op.cit., London, 1974, no.79.
Famille rose vases of this size and painted with phoenix amongst rockwork and flowers can, in the main, be divided into two distinctive groups: those, as in the present lot, with a narrow iron-red band around the shoulder and iron-red whorls around the foot; and those without the iron-red band with the elaborate neck design extending over the shoulder. Pairs of vases of the former group, very similar to the present lot, were sold in these Rooms on several occasions: on 6 June 1957, lot 21 (from the collection of Lt.Col. A. Heywood-Lonsdale, M.C.); on 28 July 1975, lot 182 (from the collection of Edmund de Rothschild, Esq., T.D.); on 10 and 11 June 1974, lot 286 and again on 27 June 1977, lot 85.
A pair of vases from the latter group, i.e. without the iron-red bands, can be found at Polesden Lacey, Surrey, The National Trust Guide Book, 1994. Compare the single vase from this group in the collection of The Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville, illustrated by George C. Williamson, op.cit., , Tokyo, 1970, pl. LVII; and another from the Bal Collection, Zeeuws Museum, Middleburg, illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, op.cit., London, 1974, no.79.