拍品專文
Similar vases are in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court (see 1 below). A further pair are in the collection of Sherborne Castle, Dorset (see 2 below).
The Kakiemon porcelain which first arrived in Europe through the Dutch East India trade around the 1660s heralded the beginning of some of the finest Oriental porcelain collections. With the support of Royal
patronage, in particular Queen Mary II, the porcelain spread down through the Court to the English House such as Burghley, Sherborne Castle and Drayton. Its importance was sufficient to warrant French designers, such as Daniel Marot, producing elaborate overmantels so that these porcelains could be displayed prominently in the Country House interior. (see page ?)
Queen Mary first visited Hampton Court in 1689 and by her death in
December 1694 she had amassed a large collection of porcelain. In an
inventory of March 24th, 1696-7 there are listed 780 items of china
with their exact positions in each of eleven rooms including "coloured jars of six squares". She created a celebrated porcelain-furnished
apartment as part of the Thames-side banqueting pavilion at Hampton
court whose celebrated "Water Gallery" was likewise "decked with
china". Her collection no doubt included pieces inherited from her
father King James II as well as items that she brought over from
Holland, where such polychromed wares were already noted by 1680 for
the high prices fetched at auction. Descriptions of the collection can be found in The Travels of Celia Fiennes who visited Hampton Court soon after the Queen's death "There was the Water Gallery that opened
into a balcony to the water and was decked with china...", John
Evelyn's diaries (July 13, 1693 and April 23, 1696) and Defoe's Tore thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 to 1727), who credited her for having introduced the custom of "furnishing houses with
china-ware".
1 OCS Transactions 15, 1937-1938, pl. 7c, 7d and 7e
2 Exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Christie's, see Hinton, Mark and Impey, Oliver, Kakiemon Porcelain from the English Country House, (1989), no. 25, and the British Museum, Porcelain for Palaces, (OCS), no. 135
The Kakiemon porcelain which first arrived in Europe through the Dutch East India trade around the 1660s heralded the beginning of some of the finest Oriental porcelain collections. With the support of Royal
patronage, in particular Queen Mary II, the porcelain spread down through the Court to the English House such as Burghley, Sherborne Castle and Drayton. Its importance was sufficient to warrant French designers, such as Daniel Marot, producing elaborate overmantels so that these porcelains could be displayed prominently in the Country House interior. (see page ?)
Queen Mary first visited Hampton Court in 1689 and by her death in
December 1694 she had amassed a large collection of porcelain. In an
inventory of March 24th, 1696-7 there are listed 780 items of china
with their exact positions in each of eleven rooms including "coloured jars of six squares". She created a celebrated porcelain-furnished
apartment as part of the Thames-side banqueting pavilion at Hampton
court whose celebrated "Water Gallery" was likewise "decked with
china". Her collection no doubt included pieces inherited from her
father King James II as well as items that she brought over from
Holland, where such polychromed wares were already noted by 1680 for
the high prices fetched at auction. Descriptions of the collection can be found in The Travels of Celia Fiennes who visited Hampton Court soon after the Queen's death "There was the Water Gallery that opened
into a balcony to the water and was decked with china...", John
Evelyn's diaries (July 13, 1693 and April 23, 1696) and Defoe's Tore thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 to 1727), who credited her for having introduced the custom of "furnishing houses with
china-ware".
1 OCS Transactions 15, 1937-1938, pl. 7c, 7d and 7e
2 Exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Christie's, see Hinton, Mark and Impey, Oliver, Kakiemon Porcelain from the English Country House, (1989), no. 25, and the British Museum, Porcelain for Palaces, (OCS), no. 135