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A RARE FAMILLE ROSE 'SEATED DUTCHMAN' FLASK

CIRCA 1760-80

Details

A RARE FAMILLE ROSE 'SEATED DUTCHMAN' FLASK Circa 1760-80 Modelled as a laughing figure seated on a mound, wearing a black tricorn hat, red jacket with gilt roundels and large blue collar, blue trousers, green spats and black shoes, his hands held around his protuberent stomach, a large loop handle applied behind the figure, the mound decorated with scattered peony sprays, and an aperture between his legs for the metal tap (lacking), minor restoration 13¼ in. (33.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh; Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 1985, lot 351 (part) (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. J-124).

Literature

D. Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, London and New York, 1978, vol.II, no.650, p.620.

Exhibited

De Cordova Museum, 1979.
Richmond, Virginia, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1981-82.

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The very similar Dutch Delft example, also formerly in the Mottahedeh Collection, will be offered as part of the Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann Collection, at Christie's, Amsterdam, on 16 April 2001 as Lot 1290.

These flasks were probably intended for spirits, and would have been filled at the top through the head, the hat forming the spout as an alternative pouring method to the tap. The Chinese version copies faience and delftware versions, which were popular in Europe in the middle of the 18th Century. Examples were produced in Delft, Brussels and Rouen. A similar famille rose flask, originally in the Ionides Collection, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by M. Jourdain and R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Export Art, London, 1967, fig.73; and another formerly in the Maillié Collection is illustrated by M. Beurdeley, Porcelain of the East India Companies, London, 1962, p.189, cat.172. Compare also the Japanese Imari model, included in this sale as the following lot.

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