CIRCA 1725

Details

A set of five and one Dutch market 'folly' plates
Circa 1725
Painted predominantly in rouge-de-fer and gilding with sepia, blue and black enamels, each depicting at the centre a Commedia dell'Arte figure variously skipping or hopping across a tiled floor in a chequered costume, within a pencilled scrollwork border encircling the well, a frieze of demi-florettes reserved on geometrical motifs around the gilt-edged rim, rim frittings and some rubbing, one plate with a star base crack
21.1 cm. (8 3/8 in.) diam. (6)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 6 December 1979, lot 1488; Sotheby's, London, 3 November 1987, lot 848; and Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 11 May 1999, lot 261 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. J-83).

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 20.825% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €90,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €90,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 20.825% of the first €90,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €90,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.

Lot Essay

These plates form part of the second series of six plates called the 'Great Scene of Folly'. The figures are from the same source as those in the previous lot but lacking the inscriptions.
The first series is executed in underglaze blue, green, black, sepia and gilt, and is accompagnied by an inscription satirising the South Sea Bubble mania. See lot 1308 in this sale for an example from the first series.
Others from the second series are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Kasteel Museum Sypesteijn, Loosdrecht, and Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg. (See D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain - Chine de Commande, London, 1974, figs. 257, 259 and F.& N. Hervouët et Y. Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, pp. 216-217, pls. 9.61-9.66).

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