Double Ductch

DOUBLE DUTCH OR

ON WITH THE DANCE! LET JOY BE UNCONFINED

(Asian art in London logo)

2 - 10 November 2006

Written and Researched by WILLIAM MOTLEY

COHEN & COHEN 101B Kensington Church Street, London W8 7LN Tel: +44 (20) 7727 7677 Fax: +44 (20) 7229 9653 Email: info@cohenandcohen.co.uk Website: www.cohenandcohen.co.uk

© Cohen & Cohen 2006 Published October 2006 ISBN 0 9537185 7 6

Published by Cohen & Cohen Photographs by Mike Bruce, Gate Studios Printed and bound by Die Keure, Belgium

FOREWORD This year the name of the catalogue chose itself. Once we had acquired two groups of Dutch dancers what else could we call it?

The primary theme of this year's catalogue appears to be people. There are models of people including the above mentioned dancers but also two previously unrecorded pairs of figures. One of these is the pair of ladies carrying baskets on their heads and the other the male and female couple that, unusually, do not follow the static forms of most Chinese figures but show a degree of animation that demonstrates the supreme skill of the modeller.

There are people at work painted on the punchbowl (also unrecorded) decorated with scenes of porcelain production at Jingdezhen. This rare documentary bowl shows the whole story of porcelain production in eighteenth century China.

Equally rare and undocumented is the pair of massive tankards depicting Furudals Bruk, an iron foundry in Sweden and the supplier of anchors and anchor chains to the Swedish East India Company. The people associated with these are Birger Elfving who established the foundry and Isaac Gustav Clason who acquired the foundry and under whose management it flourished. Also of interest is Gustaf Henrik Hertzenhielm who produced the drawing used by the Chinese artists and which is reproduced so accurately on the tankards. The original drawing accompanies the tankards and we believe that this is only the second occasion where it has been possible to acquire the original artwork for an item of Chinese export porcelain. The previous occasion was the artwork for the arms of Leake Okeover which accompanied the sale of the dinner service in the 1970s.

As ever research into armorial pieces throws up stories of other interesting people. The most important this year may be Catherine the Great of Russia but the families of Holburne and Waller are also historically significant and we may only speculate on the people who ordered the two pseudo-armorial plates that we record.

Lastly come the fictional people depicted on the magnificent famille rose garniture from the Yongzheng period.

This depicts several scenes from the Romance of the Western Chamber probably the favourite literary source for designs on Chinese porcelain. There are panels depicting Cui Yingying, the heroine of the story, with her parents, Sun Feihu, the villain, attacking the temple where Cui and the hero, Zhang, meet, the battle between hero and villain and the scene of the lover's parting.

Other items of note are a set of six panels of Chinese wallpaper, a massive punchbowl decorated with maritime scenes and a Bartolozzi print, a superb Canton enamel vase from the Imperial factory and with the Qianlong reign mark, and important models of a pair of deer and a large pair of famille rose boys.

As ever the catalogue is the work of Will Motley aided by Viktoria Westin who did much of the research on Furudals Bruk. Photography is by Mike Bruce of Gate Studios. Thanks are also due to Antoine Lebel for information on the Galart family, to Matthew Winterbottom, Curator at the Holburne Museum, Bath and to Henrik von Gerber who took the photograph of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Michael & Ewa Cohen

34.

A FAMILLE VERTE JARDINIERE Kangxi, circa 1720 European, possibly French, Market Diameter: 12 inches (30.5cm) A famille verte hexagonal jardinière with each side depicting animals and antiques, below scrolling lotus around the flat everted rim, the interior finely painted with detached pomegranate, peach and persimmon sprays, supported on six short bracket feet, wood stand.

This is a rare example of this type, the painting is of a high quality mixing underglaze blue and famille verte enamels very skillfully in the wucai style. The interior was left unglazed and has, most unusually, been further ename;led directly onto the biscuit. The shape is derived from a Ming type produced during the reign of Xuande (1426-35).

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p95, No 109, a blue and white armorial jardinière of identical size and shape which is unglazed inside, c1695.

HOBSON, Wares of the Ming Dynasty, p82, plate 4, an example of the shape from the Ming.

2.

A SET OF SIX BLUE & WHITE DISHES Kangxi, circa 1690 Dutch Market Diameter: 8 ¼ inches (21cm) A set of six blue and white floriform deep dishes painted with birds and insects amongst flowering plants and pierced rockwork.

A fine and attractive set of plates that exemplify the high quality and sophistication of Kangxi blue and white porcelain. Dishes of this shape were produced in brass and silver in the Netherlands and also copied in Delft tinglazed pottery and were often used in churches as alms and offertory dishes.

REFERENCES: COHEN & COHEN (1999) Big Is Beautiful, No 3 a pair of chargers of similar moulding and decoration.

I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.

Oscar Wilde

3.

A PAIR VASES AND COVERS Kangxi, circa 1690 Dutch Market Height: 23 inches (58.5cm)

A pair of blue and white jars and covers of oviform-baluster shape, each painted with panels decorated with river landscapes and flowers, all on a floral ground, the neck with a lappet border.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

David Hume, (1711-1776)

1.

A PAIR OF TUREENS AND COVERS Kangxi, circa 1720 French Market Length: 10 ¼ inches (26cm) A fine and rare pair of turquoise glazed tureens and covers modelled in shell form, the covers with shell knops, the bases supported by a sculpted foot, the interiors glazed white.

These striking tureens are glazed with a deep turquoise alkali glaze probably derived from the alkali glazes first developed for fahua style ceramics, which in turn are imitating falan or cloisonné enamels. The glaze is a highpotassia eutectic coloured with copper and tin to produce a rich satisfying pigment. A few parrots and other figures are also known with this glaze.

REFERENCES: VERDIER, Philippe, Antiques, April 1961, p369, a pair of Kangxi whelk-shaped (lo-ssu) tureens with similar knops and the same turquoise glaze, with ormolu mounts.

5.

A FAMILLE ROSE GARNITURE Yongzheng, circa 1730 Dutch Market Height: 24 3/4 inches (63 cm) A large famille rose garniture comprising three baluster jars and covers and two beaker vases, each painted with four different figure scenes below a pink-ground lappet border enriched with flowers, the neck with a flower scroll and panels with landscapes.

This is a very striking set that belongs to a group of porcelains produced during a short period in the reign of the Emperor Yongzheng. Items such as vases of this high quality were characterised by the rich use of the yellow enamel, inventive decoration and narrative or landscape scenes that were popular during this time. The enamels used here are particularly rich and illustrate an experimental mixing of the three newly introduced 'famille rose' enamels (pink, opaque yellow and opaque white).

The scenes are from the Romance of the Western Chamber, probably the most popular literary source for subjects on Chinese porcelain. The Romance (Hsi hsiang chi) was written by Wang Shih-Fu (1250-1337) and describes a relatively lowly scholar, Zhang, from Luo Yang who meets the beautiful Cui Yingying, daughter of a former Prime Minister, in a temple and he is immediately smitten.

However the temple is then besieged by a violent bandit call Sun Feihu who marries Cui by force. Cui's mother offers her daughter's hand in marriage to whoever can rescue her. With the help of friends Zhang eventually defeats Sun and claims his prize. But his potential mother-in-law reneges on her promise and demands that Zhang now pass the Official Examination for the Civil Service before he will be allowed to marry her. The play ends with their tearful parting, 'hearts entwined' as Zhang sets off westwards for his studies and Cui is carried eastwards in a cart - though the pain of parting is tempered with the knowledge that eventually they will be reunited.

Each item has four panels showing Cui with her parents, Sun Feihu attacking Cui, Zhang fighting Sun and the final parting scene. This last scene is one of the most popular on Chinese porcelain.

The forms of this set are Chinese and whole arrays of vases and bronzes were used to decorate Chinese Buddhist temples. However such five piece sets, known as De Kastels by the Dutch, were a European invention and fashionable in Holland and England. Late in the seventeenth century the interior designs of Daniel Marot inspired the display of such sets and fireplaces, door pediments and furniture were constructed with integral brackets and shelves to incorporate porcelain, which was all the rage in big houses.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p6265, Nos 38-42, several chargers with similar decoration.

COHEN & COHEN (2004) Bedtime Stories, No 6, a massive charger with similar enamelling and also illustrating a scene from The Romance of the Western Chamber.

Flowers fall, the water flows red, grief is infinite from The Romance of the Western Chamber

O for the gentleness of old Romance, The simple planning of a minstrel's song!

John Keats (1795-1821)

31.

A FAMILLE ROSE FLORAL DISH Yongzheng, circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 17 inches (43cm) A fine charger boldly decorated in famille rose enamels with a central floral spray with a large pink peony and prunus blossom, the rim having four sprays of bright flowers. The underside has an underglaze blue four-character apocryphal Chenghua mark within a double circle.

This dish is an early example of famille rose and exhibits the bravura experimentation typical of such Yongzheng porcelains. The overall design would appear to cater more for a domestic Chinese taste but such items were also popular in Europe. Note the black outlines in the enameling, the layering of colours and use of the rich yellow enamel, which was the most expensive in the famille rose palette.

35.

A FAMILLE ROSE PUNCH BOWL Yongzheng, circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 15 ½ inches (39cm) A fine punch bowl painted in famille rose enamels with Chinese garden and domestic scenes on the outside, the interior rim with four panels of antiques reserved on a band of green and pink cell diapering and a large spray of roses in the middle.

4.

A FAMILLE ROSE PUNCH BOWL Yongzheng, circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 16 inches (40cm) A famille rose punch bowl decorated with three cockerels, a hen and five chicks on a grassy bank surrounded by blossoming peonies, the interior with chrysanthemums and other flowers, the rim with a scrolling lotus band with four cartouches underneath a cell pattern band.

In Chinese symbolism the cockerel is the emblem of literary success and the peony represents wealth and nobility.

The whole family of chickens here therefore indicates an impressive fecundity of upper-class education.

This beautiful bowl shows the highest quality painting and enamelling of the Yongzheng period that is usually found on plates rather than larger pieces such as this one.

An identical bowl was in the Mottaheddeh collection.

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

Chinese Proverb

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p155, No 137, an identical bowl.

WILLIAMSON, George C (1970) The Book Of Famille Rose, plate II, a comparable bowl.

People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

7.

A FAMILLE ROSE PITCHER AND COVER Qianlong, circa 1740 European Market Height: 11 inches (28cm) A large famille rose jug and cover of pear shape decorated in bright enamels with blossoming peony sprays below a spearhead border.

This is a fine example of this type, the enamelling of the peonies being unusual and the porcelain body of the pitcher being of a notable purity and whiteness.

6.

A RUBY BACK SAUCER DISH Yongzheng, circa 1730 European Market Diameter:8 inches (20cm) A famille rose egg-shell saucer dish with ruby back, finely enamelled with a seated lady and two boys surrounded by antiques, the rim with panels of flowers enclosed on a pink cell patterned ground.

Such items are the jewels of porcelain collecting and are highly prized as cabinet pieces. The Emperor Yongzheng (1722-1736) encouraged the increased sophistication of famille rose decoration and this dish represents the pinnacle of this art: fine and detailed enamelling on egg-shell thin porcelain.

The origins of the famille rose palette are still much discussed. There are three new enamels that characterise famille rose: an opaque white enamel and an opaque yellow enamel which seem to have been derived from cloisonné enamels, the white being lead-arsenate and the yellow containing lead-stannate. The translucent pink enamel (using colloidal gold in a lead-oxide-potassia-silica base) evolved separately and probably came from Europe with the Jesuits, derived from German enamelling techniques which were very popular in the Imperial work

shops of Beijing. The Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) greatly encouraged this technical experimentation thus providing the means for his successors aesthetic developments.

For those new to Chinese porcelain decoration the terms famille rose and famille verte can be very confusing.

Essentially it is the mixing of the opaque white and yellow enamels with the new translucent pink and other enamels that defines the famille rose palette and distinguishes it from the famille verte decoration. Famille verte painting uses the thinness of the translucent enamels against the white of the porcelain for effect (like watercolour painting) whereas famille rose uses opaque white enamel for similar effect (more like oil painting).

The pink enamel that coats the back of this dish was expensive and very difficult to use - it had to be fired at an exact temperature to get the required colour and the mixing of the enamel determined the smoothness of the result.

REFERENCES: JÖRG, CJA (1997) Chinese Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum, p216, Cat241, a saucer with the same scene.

DU BOULAY, Anthony (1963), Chinese Porcelain, p119, a saucer with the same scene.

WILLIAMSON, George C (1970) The Book Of Famille Rose, plates XXXII - XXXIII for similar examples.

11.

PAIR OF LADIES WITH BASKETS Qianlong, circa 1760 Possibly South American Market Height: 10 inches (25.5cm) Rare pair of famille rose figures of ladies, each dressed in colourful robes and with one arm raised and balancing a basket on her head.

This model appears to be unrecorded and its source is also unknown - though it could possibly be of South American influence. The enamelling is loosely applied and semi-translucent.

The baskets have sockets for use as candlesticks.

Through dancing many maidens have been unmaidened, whereby I may say it is the storehouse and nursery of bastardy.

John Northbrooke, 1577, Preacher against theatre

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

Molière (1622-1673)

10.

A PAIR OF FAMILLE ROSE BOYS Qianlong, circa 1740 European Market Height: 15 3/4 inches (40cm) A pair of porcelain figures modelled as laughing boys carrying sconces decorated with lotus, enamelled in famille rose, each having an elaborate official badge.

Pairs of laughing boys carrying pots of lotus are known as hehe erxian or the Twin Immortals of Harmony. They are the patron deities of Chinese merchants, particularly of Chinese potters, and in paintings they often accompany Tsai Shen, the God of Wealth. Boys were always strongly favoured in Chinese culture and these have special protective amulets or gilded lockets around their necks to ward off evil spirits and their bracelets are made from the beaten iron nails of old coffins, which were traditionally worn by boys under sixteen years old.

Pairs of these figures are recorded mainly in famille verte enamels and occasionally in blue and white but the famille rose examples are rare and these are extremely fine. An almost identical pair is in the Schlossmuseum, Gotha, though one is famille verte and the other famille rose.

Another similar boy in famille rose is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, accompanied by a figure of a lady in comparable decoration and with an identical plinth.

REFERENCES: ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (1999) Porcelanas e Vidros, p61, a pair of famille verte boys.

ALVES, Jorge et al (1998) Caminhos da Porcelana - Dinastias Ming e Qing, p318, No 124, a pair of famille verte boys.

DU BOULAY, Anthony (1963), Chinese Porcelain, p89, the figures of a boy and lady from the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo et al. (1972) Kina Slott på Drottningholm, p295, No 76, a single famille rose boy very similar to these ones.

Dancers are the athletes of God. Albert Einstein There are short-cuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.

Vicki Baum

8.

A PAIR STANDING FIGURES Qianlong, circa 1750 English Market Height: 16 ½ inches (42cm) A pair of famille rose models of a couple each standing on a rectangular base, the lady wearing a white-ground tunic over a pleated skirt and the man a blue coat above another coat and heavy boots, each holding a fan.

It is unusual to find a pair of figures like these with one male and one female, most pairs being either two maidens or two male figures such as warriors or boys. The quality of these is very high, both in the modelling which is lively and subtle - each has movement and weight - and in the enamelling which is detailed and colourful. The faces have gentle and humorous expressions and their bodies turn slightly.

REFERENCES: CARNIERO, Jose Manuel Martins, The Porcelain Garden, p96 a single figure identical to the lady in this pair.

In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-73)

I just put my feet in the air and move them around.

Fred Astaire Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels.

Faith Whittlesey

12.

A PAIR OF STANDING DUTCH DANCERS Qianlong, circa 1760 Dutch Market Height: 10 inches (25.5cm) A fine and rare famille rose model of a dancing European couple standing side by side as at the start of a minuet, both standing on a pierced rectangular base decorated with a wood-grain pattern.

This pair of figures and the next pair in this catalogue constitute one of the oddest, rarest and most famous types in Chinese Export Porcelain. They do not fit with most other such figures made for export and their market is unclear. Though it would seem that these are made for the Dutch Market (and some were clearly exported to Europe) they may also have been made for the entertainment of the Chinese.

Almost certainly they were made as matching pairs: the first shows the couple preparing to dance with the man's feet parted and his arms guiding her shoulder; the second group shows them whirling in the middle of the dance.

These two groups illustrated here do not quite match in the enamelling of their clothing and of the bases.

However each of these does in fact correspond very closely to the two similar groups in the Copeland Collection in the Peabody Museum of Salem. All four together would thus make two properly matching sets of figures!

The standing group is similar to a different group showing a Dutch couple side by side but lacking a geometric base.

This earlier pair has different faces with the man's feet unsplayed and which must have been made from different moulds. They are probably inspired by the so-called 'Governor Duff' images found painted on some early porcelains and also modelled in dehua blanc-de-chine.

They were originally believed to represent Diederick Durven who arrived in Batavia in 1705, eventually becoming VOC Governor there from 1728-1731, though it is now believed that the figures are just generic Europeans.

This couple has also been suggested to be representing the Sailor's Farewell, a popular scene on famille rose items in the 1750s.

Such figures were made from several different moulds, one for each part of the group, and each figure was then skilfully assembled and finished by the Chinese artisan.

The heads from these two groups are obviously taken from the same moulds demonstrating the economic efficiency of the Chinese potters.

REFERENCES: SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, p218, cat 105, the earlier standing couple on a rock base; p220, cat 106 an example of this group with different colouring that matches the next group in this catalogue; p222, cat 107, the dancing group with identical colouring to this example.

HAYWARD, John (1961) Antiques, February 1961, figures from the Ionides collection relating to this example and reference to another in the Garbisch Collection.

BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companies, p21, Plate V, an example from the Espirito Santo Collection, the man having a rounded hat and with simpler enamelling.

WILLIAMSON, George C (1970) The Book Of Famille Rose, plate XLI, the standing couple on a rock base.

There’s more to dancing than a pair of dancing shoes.

Dutch proverb

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.

Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy

13.

A PAIR OF WHIRLING DANCERS Qianlong, circa 1760 Dutch Market Height:10 inches (25.5cm) A fine and very rare famille rose group of a dancing European couple standing on a pierced plinth, both with their left foot lifted off the ground in mid-dance, the plinth's sides with orange flowers reserved on a light blue ground.

The couple in mid-dance is very likely to have been influenced by an earlier model of a dancing couple that was first made for the Meissen factory and then copied by the Chinese as well as by Bow, Chelsea and Derby. First modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein in 1735 for Meissen it was reworked by Johan Joachim Kändler and listed in his Taxa of 1743 as "Harlequin and a maiden doing a Polish dance, possibly a Mazurka". There are very few examples of that group known but when the wreck of the VOC ship Geldermalsen was salvaged in 1985 five damaged examples were recovered which had lost their enamels due to the corrosion of salt water and enabled dating to 1752. This Dutch group is in a more naïve style and would have amused the Chinese who were known to find European activities very curious.

The most interesting aspect of these groups is the combination of European and Chinese influences: the costumes are typical eighteenth century European fashion, but decorated in a Chinese manner with peonies, chrysanthemum, clouds and scrolls. The plinth provides

another clue that indicates these groups might have been popular with the Chinese market and not purely for export, as this style is often found on pieces made for the domestic market.

Perhaps they were "curiousities for those interested in the physiognomy, costumes and social habits of Westerners" as suggested by Sargent (1991). There exist books with illustrations of European figures that were made for the Chinese Court and the Emperor Qianlong encouraged the use of European scenes and figures on certain Imperial items (see Number xx in this catlaogue).

REFERENCES: DU BOULAY, Anthony (1963), Chinese Porcelain, p82, No 116, this example is illustrated.

BUERDELEY, M & RAINDRE, G (1987) Qing Porcelain, fig 284, an example but the picture appears reversed.

SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, p220, cat 106 an example of thie standing group with colouring that matches this group; p222, cqt 107, the dancing group with different colouring to this example.

COHEN & COHEN (2002) After You! p44, cat 30, an example of the earlier Tyrolean Dancers modeled after Eberlein, Kaendler.

14.

A PAIR OF SEATED DEER Qianlong, circa 1780 Portuguese Market Height: 14 1/4 inches (36cm) excluding antlers A pair of porcelain deer seated on their hindquarters and enamelled in brown, orange and black, the coat finely painted and covered in white spots. The antlers modern replacements to fit original moulded sockets in the head.

This extraordinary pair of animals appears to be unique.

There are a small number of Chinese Export figures of deer recorded which fall into two main groups, either Kangxi examples or later models from the Jiajing period.

However the modelling of the bodies of these examples is highly sophisticated and the painting of the fur is very similar to the spaniels, pugs and hounds that date from circa 1760-1785. The seated position also resembles the dogs of this period and all the later deer are either standing or fully recumbent. A pair of Kangxi biscuit ewers in this form of seated deer are recorded, yellow glazed and with flowers and fungi attached and a Kangxi cloisonné censer modeled as a seated deer was sold at Sotheby's in 1999 but otherwise this configuration appears unique.

The head has two holes which would have held antlers made of wood or metal or possibly carved from ivory or antlerbone.

Deer hold a special place in the symbolism and mythology of the Chinese. The models for these animals are most likely the Chinese Spotted Deer or Sika Deer (Cervus nippon, Temminck 1838) which has several subspecies in China, the largest is C. nippon hortularum (Swinhoe, 1864) and others include the Manchurian Sika, (C. n. mantchuricus, Swinhoe, 1864) and the North China Sika, (C.n. mandarinus, Milne-Edwards 1871) which is almost extinct.

They all have summer coats spotted to varying degrees though the winter coat is dark and unspotted. Another feature visible in these examples is the darkened strip down the spine. Originally widespread they have suffered the fate of many animals that are good to eat or provide other useful features: their antlers are extensively used in Chinese medicine and today they are farmed for this purpose. In the wild they are protected and their populations have recovered a little with a notable recent reappearance in the Heilongjiang province.

Excavations conducted last year at the Guangfulin Ruins near Shanghai have found many deer skulls ceremonially included in burials of the 5000 year old Liangzhu culture, as well as ceramics decorated with images of spotted deer, confiming the antiquity of these animals in Chinese art, symbolism and mythology and showing the link with Immortality that this animal represents. Archaeologists have also found 2000 year old wall paintings of spotted deer in Ningxia in North West China.

The Chinese word for deer, lu, is a homophone for 'fat salary' so deer also represent substantial material success and they appear throughout Chinese history and Art, often associated with Hsi Wang Mu or in a deer hunt symbolic of the pursuit of wealth.

Another possible model for these deer could be the unusual species Elaphurus davidianus (Milne-Edwards, 1866), Père David's Deer which is spotted in juvenile stages but not as an adult and which has a face more horse-like than other deer. It is known from fossils found throughout much of China but was extensively hunted and the last surviving population was enclosed in the Qing Imperial Hunting Park near Beijing, with a 43 mile wall around it. This deer was called sze pu shiang by the Chinese which means 'none of the four' as it has the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey and the antlers of a deer. It is the only species in its genus and biologically important.

In 1865 Père Armand David (1825-1900) a French priest and naturalist, who also discovered the Giant Panda, persuaded the guards at the Imperial Park to let him in to see this strange herd of deer. He later managed to send a few specimens to France, which all died on arrival. However he also sent a few to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey who established a small herd in his Park. In 1895 a major flood drowned most of the deer in China and washed away much of the wall. And in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion troops were stationed in the park, who set about consuming the remaining animals entirely.

Fortunately the Duke's herd remained and after successful captive breeding they have been reintroduced to parks in China in the 1980s and are soon to be released into the wild.

REFERENCES: PINTO DE MATOS, MA (2003) Chinese Porcelain in the CalousteGulbenkian Collection, Cat 60, pair of stoneware recumbent deer with incised decoration, Jiajing period.

GORDEN, Elinor (1984) Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, plate XIII, a blue and white standing deer, dated to Kangxi 1720.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p611, No 640, an open vessel modelled as recumbent spotted deer painted in under glaze blue and copper red, probably a brushwasher, dated early 19th century; p587, No 609, a reclining deer, white glazed with black feet, with holes in the head for antlers (missing), dated c1735-50, 21cm long.

DU BOULAY, Anthony (1963), Chinese Porcelain, p58, fig 77, a standing stag now in the Copeland Collection.

SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, p216, No 104, standing stag, yellowish ochre coloured with small white spots, 48cm high, late 18th -early 19th century, separate porcelain antlers; p246, No 124, a recumbent stag, brown fur with white spots and black feet, early 19th century, replaced antlers.

21.

A CANTON ENAMEL VASE Qianlong, circa 1750 Height: 8 ½ inches (21.5cm) Qianlong six character seal mark and of the period A Canton enamel minyao vase with six-character mark of Qianlong in seal script, finely decorated with European hunting scenes enclosed on a ground of foliage, flowers and tree-shrews.

This vase belongs to a small group of enamel wares made in Canton in the style of Beijing enamels on copper. They were part of a complex evolution of enamelling techniques and aesthetics which developed throughout the reigns of the three Qing Emperors, Kangxi (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1722-35) and Qianlong (1735-1796).

In 1925 a discovery was made in the Forbidden Palace of a collection of very fine hua falang or 'painted enamels' which came from the period 1720-1780. Each was packed in individual cedarwood boxes and stored in the Duanning Palace, next to the east wing of the Qianqing Palace. These items are now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The objects tell the story of the evolution of Chinese enamelling, beginning with the activities in the reign of Kangxi. He was fascinated by the different techniques of enamelling on metal, glass, Yixing wares and porcelain and encouraged experimentation and the importing of ideas and expertise from the West. He extended the Beijing Workshops in 1693 and built a glass factory in 1696 under the direction of Kilian Stumpf (1655-1720) who taught the Chinese how toP11-20 prepare different enamel colours. By 1706 Kangxi was distributing enamelled glasswares as presents and enamelled copper boxes with Kangxi marks are known from this period. By the end of his reign the French Jesuit Missionary Jean Baptiste Gravereau was supervising the enamelling and this coincides with the development of the pink enamel that gave its name to famille rose.

The artistic styles of enamels during the reign of Kangxi were mainly Chinese, derived from cloisonné. But under Yongzheng the designs flourished, influenced by European enamels brought to the workshops and by painters such as Castiglione, who is known to have painted in enamels, and his student Lin Chaokai who was active during Yongzheng's reign The European designs merely acted as a starting point for the Chinese enamel painting and the rich detail of this period can be seen in the painting on a number of different items in this catalogue. For example

the Western technique of shading was applied to the flowers and faces of Chinese images (see the faces in No 6, the ruby-backed saucer dish).

The Emperor Qianlong continued this tradition of enamel painting but showed his own interest in Western Images by encouraging the use of Western figures and landscapes, including European hunting scenes. He further developed the workshops and moved some of them to Canton where items continued to be made in this style.

This magnificent vase therefore represents the culmination of some sixty years of imperial competition with Western enamelling techniques. A notable feature, which is found in a few other similar vases, is the repetition of the same scene on the reverse but in mirror image. This is not found on items made for export to the West. The colouring too is unusual with the brown background to the flowers and shrews being very rare and the stippled technique of painting indicating the closeness to the style of the Beijing workshops. Vases of this type are very rare in singles or pairs, one being recorded in the collection of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother at Buckingham Palace.

REFERENCES: YANG BODA, Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, an exhibition catalogue that reattributes some 'Beijing' enamel pieces of this type to Guangzhou workshops.

ARAPOVA, T, MENSHIKOVA, M et al. (2003) Chinese Export Art in the Hermitage Museum, Cat 99, two enamel on copper vases of different shape but with similar decoration and European scenes.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p637, No 663, a pair of vases with European ladies, Qianlong mark and period, originally ascribed to the Beijing workshops but probably also Guangzhou (Canton).

18.

AN ARMORIAL MEAT DISH Qianlong, circa 1760 English Market Length: 16 ½ inches (42cm) Large famille rose meat dish painted with the arms of Waller within borders of spearhead and floral sprays.

This elegant dish bears the arms of Waller, from one of four services recorded by Howard with these arms. This service dates from about 1760 and who ordered it is not clear.

The name Waller is ancient and in particular conjures up the history of the 17th Century and the English Civil War. The earliest member of the family is Alured de Waller of Newark, who died in 1183. Sir Richard Waller famously took Charles, Duc d'Orleans prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 and held him prisoner at Groombridge, Kent for twenty-four years! Sir Thomas Waller was Lieutenant of Dover Castle under James I and his son Sir William Waller (1598-1668) was a commander in the Civil war, winning the battle of Cheriton (29 March 1644) against his old friend Sir Ralph Hopton and his kinsman Sir Richard Tichborne whose wife was Susan Waller. Later he developed Royalist sympathies during the Commonwealth and was actively involved in the Convention Parliament which paved the way for the

Restoration of Charles II in 1660. His grandson Thomas and great grandson James both ordered Chinese armorial dinner services (1720 &1785) and his great granddaughter married Jonathen Wathen, who ordered a service, circa 1765, with the arms of Wathen impaling Waller.

His cousin Sir Hardress Waller (1604-1666) of Groombridge, a prominent Judge had signed the Death Warrant of Charles I and then inherited land in Ireland, fighting there for Cromwell's army. At the Restoration he was found guilty of regicide but unlike many who had signed the warrant he was not executed but died a prisoner at Mont Orgeuil, Jersey. His family fled to Ireland and it is most likely that this dish was made for an Irish descendant of Sir Hardress, possibly John Thomas Waller, of Castletown, Limerick who was High Sheriff in 1762 and married Elizabeth Maunsell.

Another cousin Edmund Waller (1606-1687) was a poet and Royalist who plotted against the Roundheads and was eventually exiled to France until the Restoration after which he was elected to the Royal Society. His grandson (Edmund who died 1781) could have ordered this service.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S, (2003) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume II, p331, a mug from this service illustrated.

19.

A PAIR OF ARMORIAL VASES Qianlong, circa 1770 English Market Height: 11 inches (28cm) Rare pair of Chinese export pear shaped vases enamelled with a coat of arms, the panels reserved on a turquoise chicken skin ground.

This striking pair of vases has the arms of Wilson, sable a wolf rampant/salient or, in chief three mullets argent. Crest: demi-wolf rampant. Motto: SINCERITY. Howard describes at least seventeen different Wilson arms on Chinese Porcelain, with three significantly different coats: some have a chevron and three mullets and five have versions of these arms with variations of crest and motto. However these precise items are not listed in either volume and who might have ordered them is not known.

The Wilsons are known from Eastbourne to Inverness and many were involved with the East India Company and the China Trade. Captain Walter Wilson was in Canton 1750 with the ship Grantham. Captain William Wilson was in Canton three times: 1753 and 1756 on the Suffolk and in 1759 on the Pitt and he is known to have ordered at least two armorial services in 1750 and 1760 though neither have decoration like these vases.

Vases with arms are less uncommon as the shapes were not usually part of a large dinner service so these may have been part of a small private order to accompany a few other items. One tea service, circa 1770 is listed by Howard that has exactly these arms, crest and motto but only simple floral decoration. This turquoise chicken skin ground is unusual and very few armorial items are known with it, one being a garniture of five similar vases with arms of Rigby of Lancashire and Essex. There is also a mug with similar colours bearing the arms of Renny and Howard mentions a similar garniture with Renny arms but does not illustrate it.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S, (1974 & 2003) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volumes I & II, many Wilson arms illustrated notably: Vol I, p516, teaservice with these arms; Vol I, p404 the Rigby garniture; Vol II, p282, the Renny mug.

PHILLIPS, John Goldsmith (1956) China Trade Porcelain, plate 32, the Rigby garniture.

20.

AN ARMORIAL DINNER PLATE Qianlong, circa 1770-1775 Russian Market Diameter: 9 inches (23cm) A porcelain dinner plate with a central armorial painted in famille rose enamels and with gilt rococo decoration to the rim and cavetto.

The central image is the Arms of Russia which has a double headed eagle on whose breast is the arms of Moscow, a red shield with the St George slaying the dragon.

Around this is a collar for the Order of St Andrew the First-Called, the highest order of chivalry in Russia.

These arms have a complex history and have evolved constantly. The horseman depicts the 'defender of the Motherland' and was the arms of the Duchy of Muscovy which formed the centre of the Russian Empire. The image is known on coins from the 13th Century and on a seal of Ivan III (1497) the dragon was added, representing the pagan Tartars who were the principle enemy of Russia at that time. Originally the figure represented each Tsar but was officially declared to be St George in 1730.

The man should have a blue cloak with the dragon painted in black. In most early versions the horse is heading to the 'heraldic' right showing its left flank, though in this plate it is reversed possibly because a printed version (which can reverse an image) was sent to the supercargo involved in the order.

Ivan III took the Byzantine double headed eagle and added the arms of Moscow to it probably because his wife, Sophia, was the niece of Constantine the last Byzantine Emperor. The Romanovs added the three crowns at the top though they are supposed to be connected by a blue ribbon, part of the St Andrew decoration. The orb and sceptre are standard symbols of Monarchy.

Later the arms became more and more elaborate adding shields from different parts of the Empire. A final version of these arms was restored for Russia in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union and officially approved

by Vladimir Putin in December 2000. This new version has the horses direction Arms of Russia 2000 reversed and thus is remarkably close to the arms on this plate.

This plate was made as part of service for Catherine the Great of Russia. There was only a very limited trade between Russia and China in the 18th Century which operated overland. It was started by a Dutchman Isbrandt Ives for Peter the Great in 1692 with an annual caravan to Peking. This stopped in 1722 but in 1728 a three yearly caravan was permitted as far as Mongolia and by 1755 the sole point of exchange of all Chinese goods was at Kiakhta on the Mongolian/Russian border. Most porcelain in the early trade was inferior blue and white, though by 1780 some European subject items were being received though these were always selected by the Chinese Merchants before setting out. Therefore it seems unlikely that this service would have ordered though this route.

Given Catherine's fondness for English porcelain it is pos-

sible that she ordered this through the English or Swedish East India Company.

Catherine ordered two services from Wedgwood, the 'Husk' service in 1770 and the 'Frog' service for her Palace of Grenouillère at Tsarsköe Selo, St Petersburg, in 1773.

She also ordered a service from Sèvres in 1779 as well as this Chinese service, c 1770-1775 which has a border decoration reminiscent of Worcester patterns from this period. Another Chinese service with smaller arms in the centre, c 1780-90 was also probably ordered though the EEIC. Catherine the Great is one of the most interesting and dominant figures of the eighteenth century. She was born Sophia Augusta Fredericka of Anhalt-Zerbst, 1729, in Stettin (now in Poland) and was the daughter of Prince Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Johanna Holstein-Gottorp. Johanna's brother Karl August had been betrothed to Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia, but he had died of smallpox just before the wedding. In 1741 Elizabeth Petrovna seized the Russian throne and declared her nephew Peter Ulrich HolsteinGottorp (1728-1762) as her heir. She invited the young Sophia to marry Peter (who was her second cousin) in 1744.

Sophia was required to convert from Lutheranism to the Chinese soup plate with the arms of Russian Orthodox Catherine’s parents, c. 1750 Church and took the new name Catherine.

Peter was very immature physically and mentally and the marriage was not consummated for some while though eventually a son Paul was born in 1754. Peter succeeded as Tsar Peter III in January 1762 but was removed in a coup in July that year, with Catherine's backing, and he was then killed in a supposedly drunken brawl. Catherine immediately took control and reigned as Catherine II for the next thirty four years always conscious of establishing the legitimacy of her rule, one reason for ordering the services with the Arms of Russia.

Catherine is famous for her voracious appetite for handsome and intelligent young men and she had many lovers who were well rewarded even after they had been replaced in the royal bedchamber. They included: Gregory Potemkin, highly intelligent and an advisor for many years who selected most of her lovers; Gregory Orlov, who fathered a child with her, (Alexei Bobrinsky), and whose brother Alexis Orlov was instrumental in the killing of Peter III; Ivan Rimsky-Korasakov ancestor of the composer, and lastly Plato Zubov, some forty years her junior.

Such activity in a male monarch of the period would have been simply regarded as virility. One lover Stanislaw Poniatowski, by whom she had a daughter, Anna, she made King of Poland in 1764.

Other more lurid tales of her appetites have no basis in fact and were most likely spread by her anti-monarchist

enemies in France after she died. She was succeeded by her son Tsar Paul I who she detested and who she hinted was not fathered by Peter III but rather by her first lover Serge Saltuikov. She added almost 200,000 square miles to Russia during her reign, including the Ukraine and the Crimea (1783) and waged successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and her cousin Gustav III of Sweden.

She aimed to rule as an enlightened despot and she read widely and corresponded with the main figures of the French enlightenment (at the Russian Court French was the main language spoken) including Voltaire, Diderot and D'Alembert, though she strongly opposed the French revolution and declared six weeks of mourning in Russia after the execution of Marie-Antoinette. Upon her accession in 1762 she published a manifesto inviting foreigners to move to Russia, even offering to help pay with relocation costs. She encouraged the studies of economics and science, she wrote a manual for the education of children based on the ideas of John Locke and the Hermitage was founded with her personal collection of art and other

objects. Voltaire called her the Semiramis of Russia after the Babylonian Queen.

She died from a stroke at the age of 67 in November 1796, the same year that the elderly Chinese Emperor Qianlong abdicated in favour of his son Jiajing.

REFERENCES: HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p332. No 14.23, a dinner plate from this service, wrongly dated to 1740.

BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companies, p199, cat 210, a dinner plate from the Pierre Blazy Collection.

LE CORBEILLER, Clare (1974) China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange, pp110-112, a dinner plate from this service.

ARAPOVA, T, MENSHIKOVA, M et al. (2003) Chinese Export Art in the Hermitage Museum, Cat 62 a dinner plate from this service, wrongly dated to 1740.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, Vol II, p455, No 461, a dinner plate from the later Catherine Service.

33.

A PSEUDO-ARMORIAL PLATE Qianlong, circa 1750 English Market Diameter: 9 inches (23cm) A finely painted dinner plate with a central pseudo-armorial design, the shield having a chinaman trampling tea into a crate and the crest above a knight's helm being a European figure leaning on a well-packed barrel, the motto: LABOR IPSE VOLUPTAS (work equals pleasure), the whole surrounded by elaborate mantling. The rim has a gilt and grisaille border with classical symbols of love and philosophy.

This is designed to imitate the style of armorial porcelain.

Such designs usually indicated that the owner did not bear arms himself, probably having risen as a successful merchant from a humble background. The design suggests that it was probably made for a tea merchant but the high quality of the painting and the complexity of the symbolism also suggest that it might have been made and distributed amongst a small, informal club of such merchants. Other tea trade designs are known on Chinese porcelain but are very rare.

The rim design is fascinating and is only known on one other European subject plate. At the north of the plate is cupid's quiver of arrows and his bow with two cooing doves and at the south is a dog, a shepherd's crook and a set of pan pipes. These two groups would have been instantly recognizable to an eighteenth century viewer as erotic symbols, redolent of the code of pastoral amorousness that was very popular at this time in music and poetry as well as the visual arts, derived originally from the Rennaissance works of Spenser, Tasso, Sir Philip Sydney and Shakespeare. In the eighteenth century a more evolved set of these symbols is known in the Valentine pattern which appears on many examples of Chinese export porcelain, notably on the armorial service of 1743 for Lord Anson. The Valentine pattern also usually includes two flaming hearts burning on an altar of love!

The western rim has a peacock next to a crown and sceptre, which symbolise power and the rule of Kingship; the peacock is the symbol of Hera the wife of the God Zeus and also goddess of marriage. The eastern rim has a shield with a face on it, a plumed helmet, a lance and an owl, all of which are symbols of Athene the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Justice. Athene's wisdom includes the skills of weaving, metalwork and other crafts but also adds a certain trickster cunning that would have appealed to a merchant in Canton. The shield has the face of the Gorgon Medusa on it and in later use this develops into the Christian concept of the shield of God.

Tea was the main staple of the China trade in the eighteenth century. It was an ancient Chinese invention, documented from the fifth century AD but by legend starting in 2500BC. In Europe it was adopted first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and first arrived in England around 1658 - Pepys records his first cup of tea on 25 Sept 1660. It was much encouraged by Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese bride of Charles II whom he married in 1662. It soon became very fashionable and it was supposed to be healthy. Admittedly this was the same time that smoking tobacco was compulsory in certain schools (Eton) for the good of the boys' health.

Tea was also very expensive and huge profits could be made, though this was mainly as result of import duties.

In 1730 it could cost between six and thirty-six shillings per pound and was kept in special caddies, which were locked to prevent the servants pilfering it. In 1750 (the year of this plate) the trade in tea from Canton to England was 2,000,000 lbs carried in seven ships and its economic importance was dramatic. It was even the cause of some rebellious agitation in Boston in 1773.

Anything pleasurable was bound to stimulate a clerical backlash and John Wesley campaigned vigorously against it as did Jonas Hanway, who published a tract in 1756: An Essay on Tea: Considered as Pernicious to Health, Obstructing Industry & Impoverishing the Nation.

Smuggling undercut the duty costs until the Commutation Act of 1784 reduced it. Indian tea began to arrive in England in 1839 but did not surpass the quantity of Chinese until the 1880s.

Whoever ordered this service was clearly successful and educated, with a passionate heart and full of an entrepreneurial spirit, despite the somewhat dubious motto.

REFERENCES: HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p175, No 7.98, a dinner plate with the same border and a central erotic subject scene; p32, No 1,39 a dinner plate with emblems of moneychangers worked into a similar pseudo-armorial.; No 1.37, a famille rose teabowl and saucer, 1755, with tea market scenes including Chinese trampling tea.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p50, No 45, a dinner plate with e money-changer pseudo armorial.

CONNER, Patrick (1986) The China Trade 1600-1860, p88, a painting of the Tea Trade hall at Canton, circa 1820, showing semi-naked chinamen trampling the tea into boxes, packing it for transport maximizing space on the ships.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p215, No 212 a saucer with a scene of tea packing in a warehouse, same as in Hervouet above.

36.

A FAMILLE ROSE TEAPOT STAND Qianlong, circa 1775 English or American Market Diameter: 5 inches (12.5cm) A famille rose lobed hexafoil teapot stand with a political pseudo-armorial featuring two portraits and several figures, the rim with flowers and a cell border in iron red and grey.

This dish comes from a single tea service which is known scattered though various important collections. It features The Arms of Liberty and must have been ordered by a supporter of John Wilkes or possibly even by Wilkes himself. There are also a number of bowls with this design though they appear to be of two types, either having the inscription 'The Arms of Liberty' as for this item, or 'Wilkes and Liberty' which is more common on the bowls.

The left hand portrait is of Wilkes and his two supporters, Serjeant Glynn (1722-1779) his legal advisor and Richard Grenville, 2nd Earl Temple (1711-1779), the motto is 'Always Ready in a Good Cause'. The right hand portrait is of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (17051793), who condemned Wilkes for 'seditious libel' which resulted in his expulsion from the House of Commons in 1769, and his supporters are John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792) and the Devil, the crest being a serpent rampant and their motto 'Justice Sans Pitie'.

John Wilkes (1725-1798) was one of the most colourful characters of the eighteenth century and he excited enthusiastic support and vitriolic condemnation in equal measure. He was extremely ugly, with a contorted face and a squint but he was also witty, clever and ambitious. He was the son of distiller from Clerkenwell and he married a

rich heiress and set about working his way though her fortune as a notorious rake. He was a member of the HellFire Club, founded by Sir Francis Dashwood, who held 'tasteful' orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey. Other 'Monks' of Medemenham included the Earl of Bute, Thomas Potter (son of the Archbishop of Canterbury) and the Earl of Sandwich. Wilkes was expelled from this club and later exposed their activities in his newspaper The North Briton. This paper was a direct imitation of a paper set up by the Earl of Bute in 1761, The Briton, edited

by Smollett, to publicise Bute's policies. Wilkes published an attack on King George III in issue No 45 of The North Briton for which he was charged with sedition and tried in 1764 in his absence. He had flown to France after a duel with Samuel Martin MP for Camelford, in which Wilkes had been wounded.

He returned in 1768 and was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, which encouraged riots in London.

Wilkes was suspended from the House of Commons in 1769 for 'seditious libel' and set up the Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights to uphold his cause and pay his debts. The Society also called for shorter parliaments, a wider franchise and the abolition of 'pocket boroughs'.

He was also censured in the House of Lords for obscenity in his Essay on Women, which he had privately printed for the Hellfire Club and which the Earl of Sandwich used against him. He had been expelled and re-elected from the Commons on four occasions and was Lord Mayor of London in 1774 when he was elected again for parliament and spoke against the American Revolutionary War in 1776. In later life he admitted that many of his attacks had been simply to gain popularity. An insincere opportunist he nevertheless provoked change in parliament and was instrumental in establishing the idea of a free press and its 'paper tigers'.

Serjeant Glynn was a successful lawyer and supporter of Wilkes but not a major player in the politics of the eighteenth century. However all the other figures on this dish were very significant (including, in all probability, the Devil!) Richard Grenville, Lord Temple, was the son of Richard Grenville (1678-1727) and Hester, 1st Countess Temple. He was reputed to be the richest man in England at the time and backed Wilkes's attempts to enter parliament in 1757. His younger brother George Grenville (1712-1771) was Prime Minister (1763-65) and their sister Hester married William Pitt the Elder.

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute was Prime Minister briefly from 1762-3 but was influential behind the scenes for much of his life and rumoured to be having an affair with the mother of King George III.

John Wilkes, from a print by Hogarth

The Hon. William Murray, created 1st Earl Mansfield, was the eleventh child of the impecunious 5th Viscount

Stormont and an important legal figure in the second half of the eighteenth century. He became Lord Chief Justice in 1754 and bought Kenwood House, employing Robert Adam as his interior decorator. Macauley called him "the father of modern Toryism" and he was a moderate, Jacobite pragmatist. On this dish he is representing the 'Establishment' against which Wilkes fought but in fact, although he disapproved of Wilkes strongly, he reversed his outlawry in 1774.

In 1772 Mansfield heard the petition of freedom of a slave, James Somerset, belonging to a Mr Stewart of Virginia. During the trial Somerset's Counsel stated: "The Air of England is too pure for a slave to breath." At the end Mansfield freed Somerset and declared: "Let Justice be done, though the Heavens may fall" - in effect he had abolished slavery in England though this did not apply to the rest of the British Empire until 1807, by which time the American Colonies had broken away. In his will he left £100 per annum to Dido Elizabeth Belle, the natural daughter of his nephew, Viscount Stormont, with a former slave.

All these people demonstrate not only the diversity of character in the period but the almost incestuous nature of politics at that time. Another of Wilkes's chief enemies, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and former member of the Hellfire Club, was Postmaster General and First Lord of Admiralty 1748-51 & 1771-82. Famously Sandwich declared of Wilkes that he would die either of the pox or upon the gallows. Wilkes replied: "That depends on whether I embrace your Lordship's mistress or your Lordship's principles."

REFERENCES: BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companies, p184, cat 152, a bowl, Wilkes & Liberty.

LITZENBERG, Thomas V, (2003) Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection, p185, a bowl and cream jug form this tea service.

GORDEN, Elinor (1984) Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, fig 16, a bowl, Arms of Liberty.

GODDEN, Geoffrey A, (1979) Oriental Export Market Porcelain and its Influence on European Wares, plate 149, a bowl, Wilkes & Liberty.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, Cat 9.51, a bowl, Wilkes & Liberty.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p244, punchbowl with portrait of Wilkes after an etching by Hogarth.

HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, p955, a bowl, Arms of Liberty.

32.

AN ARMORIAL PLATE Qianlong, circa 1745 English Market Diameter: 9 inches (23cm) An armorial dinner plate decorated in famille rose enamels with a central topographical scene within a quatrefoil cartouche and two maritime scenes on the rim, the elaborate armorial shield on the rim below the central scene with the crest and motto on the rim above.

Arms of Holburne of Menstrie, Baronets of Nova Scotia: Quarterly first and fourth gules a fess humettée between three crescents or second and third argent (here or) and orlé gules; crest: a demi lion rampant holding a mullet argent; Motto: DEUS SUMMUM VIRTUS (virtue the chief ornament).

This service is one of a dozen which have such scenes of Fort St George, Madras, with three different views all taken from an engraving by Proud. This one shows the view from the outer wall looking North East along the inner wall. This Fort was an important trading post for the English East India Company. The two panels on the rim are of Plymouth Sound, showing Mount Edgcumbe and the old Eddystone Lighthouse, and the Anchorage in the Pearl River near Canton, representing the two ends of the long journey from England to China and which are probably derived from designs by Piercy Brett who illustrated much of Lord Anson's published voyages.

It is not known for certain who ordered this service as it could have been one of three brothers all successful men at this date.

These three were sons of the advocate James Holburne and his wife, Jean Spital of Leuchat, and great grandsons of Major General James Holburne of Menstrie Castle, Clackmannanshire, Scotland who had fought in the Civil War and whose brother Sir Robert was Attorney-General under James I. James was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1706 and died in 1737.

Of the three sons of James and Jean, the eldest, James, became second Baronet in 1737 and had two sons, Francis, who was a Navy Captain and who died in 1756 mortally wounded in an exchange with a French privateer Prince de Soubise. His other son Alexander became the third Baronet on his father’s death in 1758. Alexander served in the Mediterranean under Admiral Saunders and alongside Alexander Hood, later Admiral. For reasons unknown Alexander was declared dead in 1763 but in fact spent the last nine years of his life in the King's Bench prison, Southwark, London, dying in 1772 abandoned and apparently insane. It has been suggested that this may have been engineered by the ambitious Francis so that Teapot from the Holburne armorial tea service, the Baronetcy might c1750, (picture Courtesy The Holburne Museum) pass to his side of the family.

The second son of James and Jean, William also served in the Royal Navy, becoming a Lieutenant in 1737 and a Commander in 1747 before dying at sea in 1760.

The third son, Admiral Sir Francis is the one most likely to have ordered this service. Francis (1704-1771) was made Captain in 1740 and was Commodore of the Leeward Islands in 1742. He married the rich widow Frances Ball (she was first married to Edward Lascelles of Harewood in Yorkshire and their eldest son was created the first Earl of Harewood in 1812) in 1750 in Barbados. Lord Boscawen described him as being: "Rich and contrived to insinuate himself into the good graces of Lord Anson". Anson was a great celebrity of his time and had a similar service to this one made for him at Canton in 1743 - perhaps Francis was keeping up with him with this service? He became Vice Admiral in the Blue squadron in 1757 and sailed in the Newark with his older brother William serving under him as ship’s Captain.

Under the patronage of the Duke of Argyll he was elected as MP for Stirling in 1761 and later served as MP for Plymouth, 17681771. He was made Lord of the Admiralty by Lord North and became Governor of Greenwich Maritime Hospital in 1771, dying there six months later. His son Francis (born 1752) became fourth Baronet the next year on the death of his cousin Alexander. Francis's grandson William (1793-1874) served on the HMS Orion during the Battle of Trafalgar at the age of eleven and his art collection later formed the basis of the Holburne Museum in Bath.

At the museum there remain only fifteen pieces of this service, the rest having being sold. The museum also has a few pieces of a teaservice with identical Holburne arms, dating from just a few years after the dinner service. Most of the service was sold by William’s sister, the last member of the family, by Mr Rainey, Auctioneer, of Southgate Street, Bath, on 27 October 1886. The dinner service was Lot 376, with two tureens, 14 meatdishes, 41 chargers, 178 dinnerplates and 40 soup plates and sold for £12 and 12 shillings. Lot 377 was the teaservice with a teapot and stand, milkjug, 35 cups and 24 saucers, selling for £4 and 5 shillings. The dinner and tea services were therefore probably ordered by the same person and, given its descent, this was most likely Admiral Francis.

This plate yet again illustrates how Chinese armorial porcelain can, with a little investigation, illuminate the human history of its age.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, p325 this service illustrated; p127 a colour plate, p46-49, discussion of the similar Anson service; p834 mention of an unillustrated service for Holbourne, c1775, formerly in the Tudor-Craig Collection, sold at Christie's 1917.

KELLY, Alexandra, (1993) The History of the Holburne Family, Pub: The Holburne Museum, Bath.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p202 a dinner plate.

LITZENBERG, Thomas V, (2003) Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection, Cat 87, a broken dinner plate.

PHILLIPS, John Goldsmith (1956) China Trade Porcelain, pl 36, a meat dish in the Helena Woolworth McCann collection.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p19, No 1.13, a meatdish.

15.

A PAIR OF ARMORIAL PLATES Qianlong, circa 1745 French Market Diameter: 9 inches (23cm) Pair of Chinese export dinner plates enamelled in the centre with the arms of Galart of Bayonne, France, within a gilt scroll border.

There is also a letter in the Franklin papers from Galart himself, dated April 1783, in which he explains the benefits of the port of Bayonne to the new regime in America.

However further research is needed to find who ordered this attractive armorial service.

REFERENCES: LEBEL, Antoine (pers. comm.) for the attribution of the arms and information about Léonce Galart, from his forthcoming book on French arms on Chinese Export Porcelain.

Provenance: Ex-collection Mrs Nelson A Rockefeller.

The Franklin Papers at www.franklinpapers.org

Arms: D'argent, à une aigle de profil de sable, volante audessus de trios plates terrassées de sinople et fixant un soleil d'or. (JB Reitstap)

16.

These delightful plates come from a very rare French armorial service. They bear the arms of the Galart family from Bayonne, a port in South West France. The bird is an eagle, not a parrot which it appears to resemble more closely. The family may have originated in the sixteenth century from Gerona in Spain but by the 17th Century a Léonce Galart of Bayonne is recorded as assisting Minister Colbert and being rewarded by Louis XIV after a visit to inspect the defence system of the port Saint-Jean de Luz.

AN OVAL ARMORIAL DISH

It must have been a descendant of Léonce who ordered this service and, though it has not been possible to identify the individual, the family clearly played a significant rôle in the municipal life of Bayonne. A Dominique de Galart is recorded as Mayor of Bayonne in 1701 (premier echevin et notaire royal) and a Michel Galart was born in Bayonne 1732. Another significant reference is to a Monsieur Galart des Graux who is recommended by several people to Benjamin Franklin to be appointed as Consul at Bayonne in 1781. (From the date this individual would likely be from the next generation after the ordering of this porcelain service.) He is described as speaking English and Dutch fluently and would be a capable and reliable friend of America in what is a strategic port on the Atlantic Coast. In February 1783 the Mayor, Magistrates and Council of Bayonne write to Franklin: "Nous vous présentons M. Galart un de nos citoyens, qui allant à Paris sera bien aise d'avoir l'honneur de vous entretenir sur cette matiére…"

Qianlong, circa 1745 French Market Diameter: 10 5/8 inches (27cm), moulded edge

This letter also flatters Franklin by beginning: "Il ne faloit pas moins que la supériorité de vos lumieres, et toute l'étendue de votre prudence pour rendre à votre patrie une liberté pour laqu'elle elle étoit née. Vous avés jetté les fondemens de cette révolution, qui vous immortalisera, comme elle a fait l'admiration de toute l'Europe." Such sentiments were unlikely to have been shared by the British.

Qianlong, circa 1745 French Market Length: 12 ½ inches (31.5cm) En suite with the previous item.

17.

AN ARMORIAL DISH

En suite with the previous item.

23.

A PSEUDO-ARMORIAL PLATE Qianlong, circa 1775 European, possibly Scandinavian, Market Diameter: 9 inches (23cm) A famille rose European subject dinner plate, the centre painted with two cartouches depicting a wood cutter and a soldier, the cavetto with a chain border and the rim with a bamboo and flower garland.

This delightful plate most likely represents a witty play on words. With the rise in the merchant classes there were those who were wealthy enough to afford personalised dinner services but did not themselves officially have a coat of arms. So they invented something in armorial style and used that instead. This example has two figures, a woodcutter and fencer en garde. Perhaps his surname was something like 'chopgard' but in a Scandinavian language.

The objects surrounding the figures must also mean something, a kite, a book and a shallow basket full of something at the bottom. However, the significance of all this remains a mystery.

The figures are also reminiscent of those on a series of Dutch playing cards of the late 17th Century which are known on earlier Chinese porcelain decorated in Holland.

REFERENCES: HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p340, No 14.49, another dinner plate from this service.

HARRISON-HALL, J Apollo, February 1994, A Meeting of East and West.

The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.

Voltaire (1694-1778) Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

9.

A PAIR OF CANDLE HOLDERS Qianlong, circa 1780 European Market Height: 6 ¾ inches (17cm) A rare pair of famille rose dog candle holders, each moulded with a pair of hounds standing on their hind legs looking up the central candle holder within a rectangular base, brightly enamelled with delicate floral bouquets, the dogs with iron-red spots.

The bases for these candlesticks are derived from European metal prototypes but the addition of the dogs seems to be a Chinese innovation. Many models of dogs are known in Chinese Export Porcelain, some derived from Chinese animals and others from European breeds.

These appear more like the Chinese short haired hunting dogs though they are too generic to be sure. The arrangement of the animals echoes the animal supporters from some armorial decoration and it is possible that the Chinese simply imitated these in a different context.

REFERENCES: JÖRG, CJA (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain, Chine de Commande from the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, p100, No 28, a similar pair.

SARGENT, William R (1991) The Copeland Collection, p232, No 114 a pair of the same model but different colouring, predominantly underglaze blue and iron red.

The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

27.

A PAIR OF VASES AND COVERS Qianlong, circa 1780 American Market Height: 18 ½ inches (47cm) A large pair of famille rose vases and covers of rectangular baluster form with pairs of iron red and gilt serpent handles and decorated with raised panels of flowers, scrolls and butterflies, all reserved on a white chicken skin ground lightly moulded with flowers.

A fine pair of attractive vases which follow a Chinese form, the handles resembling dragons and the knops as Dogs of Fo. The chicken skin ground is achieved by painstakingly adding small dots of glaze to the surface.

The decoration in bright famille rose enamels is of a European type, similar to that of Lowestoft porcelain with elements also taken from Meissen.

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness.

It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill.

William Murray, Earl of Mansfield (1705-1793)

22.

AN IMARI PUNCH BOWL Qianlong, circa 1740 French Market Diameter: 16 inches (41cm) A rare European subject punch bowl, the interior decorated in famille rose enamels with three European gentleman and two dogs, the exterior painted in the Imari palette with birds perched on blossoming peony branches.

This very unusual bowl is unrecorded and the source for the central scene is unknown. The decoration is a mixture of the Chinese Imari palette (underglaze blue with overglaze rouge de fer and gold) on the outside of the bowl and famille rose enamels on the inside. The interior scene is also a mystery. The costumes appear French and are similar to the style of clothing in prints by Nicolas and Robert Bonnart, circa 1700, which are known on export porcelain in blue and white. The long wig and robe of the man on the right suggest a French king (Louis XIV) perhaps granting an audi

ence to two gentlemen who are selling a dog: they are carrying one and another is following behind. The surrounding architecture and furniture are totally Chinese and he quality of enamelling is very high, especially in the bowl of fruit though the physiognomy of the Europeans was clearly a challenge to the Chinese painter.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p580, No 601, figures of Louis XIV and his mistress.

30.

A BLUE & WHITE CHARGER Qianlong, circa 1740 Dutch Market Diameter: 17 1/4 inches (44cm) A large blue and white Chinese export charger with a central scene showing three elaborately robed figures seated beneath a flowering tree, the figures to the right and centre each holding a fish, and fourth bald-headed and simply clothed figure standing behind them. In front of the seated men is a low table of European design on which rests a large Kraak porcelain dish, in the background a peacock is perched on a trellis fence watching a bird in the tree. The rim is painted with six bordered cartouches containing three exotic fish divided by water-fowl and flower head lappets.

The central scene on this plate is known as 'The Doctor's Visit to the Emperor' and is after a design by the Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk. It was the second drawing (of four) the Dutch East India Company (VOC) commissioned from Cornelis Pronk in 1735, and, like the others, it portrays a very Western view of life in China. For example the table is of a European design and the dish on it is of the 'kraak' style, which is a type that was exported to the West in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and would never have been used by the Emperor. The design may have been inspired by a design on a Ming jar which depicts three Daoist 'star-gods' in a cave playing chess.

In this design the figures bear small fish which may have been a reference to their healthy and nutritious nature and which is extended by Pronk in the rim panels each of which has three crossed fish. This slightly awkward design must have some significance, possibly in a Dutch language pun or folklore. Perhaps it resonates with Aesop's fable of The Fisherman and the Little Fish who, when caught, begged the man to let him go as he was too small to eat and could grow into a much better meal in the future. The fisherman declined, saying: "A little thing in the hand is worth more than a great thing in prospect." Another possible source for the design is found in a late Ming blue and white bowl with the poet Su Dongpo on a boat seated at a table with two drinking companions, with an inscription that quotes from the Ode to the Red Cliffs, about catching fish.

The design arrived in Canton in 1737 and presented the supercargoes responsible for placing the porcelain order with a problem familiar from the first design: both designs were highly detailed and therefore very expensive to produce, and so the supercargoes dared place only a small order.

A second slightly larger order was placed the following year, but in 1739 another less detailed version of this design, omitting the standing figure, was sent to Canton in hope of reducing the price of production. The supercargoes took this second design from dealer to dealer but were unable to obtain a satisfactory reduction in the price and reported that they would not be placing an order after all. However, the records from the VOC show that a large order of 60 dinner services of 371 pieces, thirty more of 94 pieces and 830 pieces of tea wares was placed.

Strangely, pieces of the second design are now much less common than pieces of the first despite being ordered in far larger numbers.

At the time of manufacture the blue and white pieces were regarded as the most expensive items to produce in this pattern as the underglaze painting could not be corrected or wiped off as was possible with the over glaze enamels before firing, so any mistake rendered the piece as waste.

REFERENCES: JÖRG, CJA (1980), Pronk Porcelain, pp 26-7, an urn and cover with this design.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p294, an urn, and discussion of Pronk designs.

They falsify almost everything they sell and in particular they counterfeit gammons of bacon so artfully, that people are often mistaken in them, and when they have boiled them a long time, they find nothing, when they sit down to eat them, but a piece of wood under a hog’s skin.

The Chinese Traveller, 1772

24.

A BLUE & WHITE TUREEN AND COVER Qianlong, circa 1760 Dutch Market Length: 10 ½ inches (26.5cm) Height: 8 inches (20cm) A blue and white tureen and cover painted with an iris and an orchid surrounded by butterflies and caterpillars, the rim with a European style scrolling band, all after designs by Maria Sibylla Merian.

This elegant tureen copies a European silver shape and has a very rare decoration that copies a design found in famille rose on earlier porcelain dishes from 1740.

The main image is taken from a design that is traditionally attributed to Maria Sybille Merian (1646-1717), a remarkable Natural Historian and botanical artist who travelled to the Dutch West Indies in 1698. She later published a book of her drawings, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Pub: Holland 1705 and France 1771). For sometime it was not known which source had been used, as the complete image is not found in her books.

However a careful analysis of the elements has shown that at least four parts are derived from different plates in Merian's third Raupenbuch (caterpillar book) of 1717. The iris is taken from Plate 20 and the anemone from plate 34. The butterfly is similar to one in plate 28 and the larger caterpillar (Cerura vinula) on the anemone is taken from plate 39 originally depicted on a willow branch. The other elements have yet to be traced.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West, p304, No 298, a famille rose dinner plate.

HOWARD, David S. (1994), The Choice of the Private Trader, p78, No 60, a famille rose dinner plate.

JÖRG, CJA (1997) Chinese Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum, p287, fig 334, a famille rose saucer.

COHEN & COHEN (2005) Now & Then, Cat 11, a large famille rose charger.

Dance is.... ...the hidden language of the soul.

Martha Graham ...the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.

Ted Shawn, 1955 ...like bank robbery, it takes split second timing.

Twyla Tharp ...a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

George Bernard Shaw

28.

A RARE PUNCH BOWL Qianlong, circa 1770 English Market Diameter: 16 3/8 inches (41.5cm) A rare punch bowl finely decorated in underglaze blue with a continuous scene of the porcelain production at Jingdezhen, the interior with floral decoration in Imari and famille rose palettes.

This rare bowl illustrates its means of production.

Porcelain had been made in China for many centuries and had been widely admired and prized around the world. There is much discussion about the exact origins of the invention of porcelain and it depends to some extent on the definition of porcelain.

The origins of the word are complex. It seems to have been used first by Marco Polo to describe Chinese pottery in the late thirteenth century when he also used it to describe cowrie shells, which are held to resemble little pigs (porcellus is Latin for little pig). The similarity of the white porcelain to the cowrie shells in appearance and texture when broken, accounts for the conflation of terminology.

Exact dating of the first porcelain production is contentious with some experts putting it as far back as the Eastern Han in the province of Zhejiang. There is certainly evidence for the mixing of the two key components and the kilns could have fired at the high temperatures required. These wares are usually referred to as protoporcelain but the date of the transition to true porcelaneous wares is not clear. An Arab traveller in the Tang dynasty reported a "a very fine clay with which they make vases that are as transparent as glass."

White hard-paste porcelain was widely produced in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and was developed and perfected from then on. There was no equal in the West and its manufacture was long regarded as a mystery. It consists of two ingredients which have different properties and are gathered in different ways: kaolin and petuntse, though both ultimately derive from the weathering of granitic rocks.

Petuntse (pe tun ste, literally white paste bricks) is known as the 'flesh' of the porcelain, it is fusible, melting at high temperatures rendering it translucent. It consists of aluminium silicates and potash which are gathered from powdered granite rocks, beaten and crushed mechanically and then the resultant powder is washed and dried into small white bricks. The stones were mined in the mountains around Jingdezhen and the many streams provided power for water wheels to pound the rocks with hammers.

The resultant paste had to be successively washed and suspended in water to remove impurities.

Glaze is made by mixing petuntse with small amounts of limestone and ash from burnt ferns. The silicon dioxide provides the glassiness and the aluminium oxide holds it in place preventing it running off in the kiln. It used to be applied with a goat's hair brush, with which was difficult to get an even coat, so eventually they dipped pots in the glaze and then blew on them.

Kaolin is the 'bones' of the porcelain and is a fine white clay that is infusible (does not melt) and gives the prefired porcelain its plasticity. It principally contains aluminium hydroxide, silicon dioxide (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) and varying amounts of mica (SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, Fe2O3, MgO, CaO, Hg2O).

The two are combined into a final paste which is kneaded and rolled to removed water and air bubbles, which would explode in the kiln and, when this is fired at high temperatures, it gives the porcelain its prized features: it can be formed into complex shapes or thin layers, it is semi-translucent and of a fine whiteness and it rings like a bell when struck gently.

The early Yuan porcelain mainly used petuntse with only a little kaolin and was fired at 1250 degrees but by the beginning of the Qing the mixture was roughly equal and required firing at 1350 degrees. The kilns were large and there was a temperature gradient within, with the hottest part being at the front, so they were packed with objects according to the ratio of petuntse to kaolin and the types of glazes, allowing correct firing at different temperatures all within one kiln.

Two detailed accounts of the manufacture of porcelain from the early Qing are known. The first was by Père Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles during the reign of Kangxi.

He was a Jesuit Missionary and an early example of an

industrial spy. He sent letters home (1712 and 1722) describing the whole process.

The second account was written in 1743 when the Imperial Supervisor at Jingdezhen, Tang Ying, produced a memoir, Twenty Illustrations of the Manufacture of Porcelain.

The accompanying text has survived though the illustrations have not. They include such processes as: Burning the Ashes and Preparing the Glaze; Manufacture of the Saggars; and Painting the Round Ware in Blue.

After potting, moulding and drying, the design is painted in cobalt underglaze blue. The unfired wares are glazed and each pot is packed in a clay box or saggar which protects it in the kiln. For some large figures it was necessary to build small scaffolds within the saggar to hold the object in place and prevent it collapsing during firing and these attachments left small marks on the object. (See a pair of Kangxi crouching leopards, Cohen & Cohen 2005).

The illustration and descriptions by Tang Ying may have been the inspiration for the decoration of this remarkable bowl. You can see figures carrying the clay from the mountains; the mixing of the clay and stones; various scenes of potting with workers in sheds (one working on what appears to be a soldier vase); the painting workshops behind a pine tree; pots drying on racks; pots being carried to the kiln, with the kiln chimney in the background; shops along the city walls which seem to be empty; a chop boat on the river packed with pots on their way to Canton.

REFERENCES: HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, p38, No 29, a famille rose punch bowl with scene of a similar style but showing the cultivation and processing of tea.

CONNER, Patrick (1986) The China Trade 1600-1860, Cat 82 a painting circa 1800 showing the manufacture and preparation of porcelain.

WILLOUGHBY-HODGSON, Mrs, Connoisseur, July 1932, p1719, description of wallpaper with scenes of porcelain manufacture (among others) given by Lord Macartney (1794) first English Ambassador to China, to Thomas Coutts the Banker which is now in the Boardroom of Coutts and Co, 440 The Strand, London.

As each profession has its particular idol, and as Divinity is conferred here as easily as the rank of count or marquis in some European countries, it is not surprising that they have a god of porcelain. Pou-sa (the name of this idol) owes its origin to those designs which the workmen find it impossible to execute. They tell us that formerly the Emperor decreed positively that some porcelain pieces should he made after a pattern which he gave. He was told several times that it was impossible, but all these remonstrances only served to excite his desire. His officers redoubled their demands, and used all kinds of severities to the workpeople.

These unfortunates spent all their money and tried their utmost, but they received only beatings in return.

At last one of them, in a moment of despair, threw himself into the burning furnace and was consumed in an instant. The porcelain in that furnace, so they say, came out perfectly beautiful and to the satisfaction of the Emperor, who asked for nothing more. From that time the unfortunate man was regarded as a hero, and became in consequence the idol that watches over the workers in porcelain. I do not know whether his elevation has tempted any other Chinese to follow the same route with a view to a similar honour.

Père D'Entrecolles

Christopher Polhem, the most important scientist and inventor of his day, who designed gunfactories and arsenals. Elfving was an enthusiastic innovator who invented many new techniques for simplifying the work and speeding up production. He began his own foundry at Hedemora in 1703 before moving to Furdals Bruk in 1709. He had a large order of canons for the Swedish Army which were expensive to make and eventually they were not accepted by the governement as the lighter ones shot over their target and the heavier ones were subject to cracking. He also suffered from pilfering of guns and ammunition by his staff and was regularly in financial difficulties.

25.

A PAIR OF TOPOGRAPHICAL TANKARDS Qianlong, circa 1790 Swedish Market Height: 8 ¾ inches (22cm) A pair of iron-red and blue and white topographical tankards depicting Furudals Bruk, Sweden, after an original drawing by G. Hertzenhielm which accompanies this item.

These extraordinary mugs are still associated with the original drawing which would have been sent out to Canton for the Chinese artists to copy onto porcelain.

That this drawing survives is very rare indeed - the only other recorded example of such original artwork is the design for the Okeover armorial service, illustrated in Howard (1974). Export porcelains with Swedish topographical scenes are rare and these examples are previously unrecorded.

The image here is Furudals Bruk an iron foundry in Dalarna county, in the middle of Sweden, well served by rivers for transport and local iron ore and coal reserves.

The irons works were established in 1709 by Birger Elfving. He was the son of a Vicar and protegé of

Nonetheless he had a constant stream of ideas and worked on a submarine, a mechanical harvester and various Marine navigational instruments. His son, Samuel, an Army Lieutenant, inherited the foundry in 1747 and sold it in 1749 to Mathias Brock, who soon sold it on to Benjamin Sandel in 1752. He built new factories and the large house (1753) in the middle of the site. Abraham Hülpher records a visit in his Diary of Trip to Dalarna County, 1757, and describes a variety of forges, smithies and workshops and how the products and materials were transported on the nearby Lakes and Rivers - an important feature in the success of the Ironworks there.

Hülpher also says that Sandel built the long bridge (seen at the front of the drawing) over the channel linking Ore Lake and Skattungen Lake.

On Sundays the factory boats would carry more than sixty people from Furudals village to the church at Ore unless the weather was too bad in which case they said prayers together by the big house.

In 1754 Hans Wittfoth writes in a letter that he has invested money in Furudals Bruk and his sister’s son was Isaac Gustav Clason (1748-1804) who acquired the estate and

signature of IG Clason on the base of each mug

foundry in 1776, having spent many months there beforehand to study the business. He was a clever entrepreneur and under his management the Foundry flourished becoming one of the main suppliers of quality large ironwork in Sweden. They supplied chain and anchors for the Swedish East India Company ships and made the chains and railings outside the newly built Royal Palace in Stockholm. The fence and terrace wall around the house were built by Olof Gammelstöt.

He discovered iron ore ten miles away and also coal, though the local farmers were strongly disinclined to mine it for him.

The central building, built by The original ink drawing by G H Hertzenhielm, dated 1792 Benjamin Sandel, was burnt in 1818 but rebuilt in a similar style. The had become very wealthy and he ordered an armorial serv other buildings have been remodelled a little over the ice, The Clason Service, well known in Sweden with an years but the appearance today is still much as depicted unusual design. So it is very likely that these mugs were here. ordered by Hans in Canton for his cousin and brought back to Sweden on the Sophia-Magdalena.

The drawing is dated 1792 and is by Gustaf Henrik Hertzenhielm (1749-1804) from a successful military famAs items for the China Trade Collector these have everyily. He was sent to Military School from the age of seven thing to offer: precise dating, details of transport, unusuand rose through the ranks becoming a Major by 1792. ally large size, original artwork and they are even signed He married Catharina Lindblom (1777-1843) but their on the bases in black ink by Isaac Clason the original only son was born and died on the same day in 1803 and owner. he died the following year. The drawing is more accurate than artistic and has been carefully followed by the REFERENCES: Chinese artists.

CLASON, Frederick, (1938) A History of Furudals Bruk. (A copy A close relative of Isaac Clason was Hans Henrik Clason who was a Captain in the SEIC, travelling to Canton four times between 1782 and 1794. His last journey from 17924 was on a new ship the Drottning Sophia-Magdalena (which was wrecked in the English Channel 1801). Hans Clason

Part of the chain railings outside the Royal Palace, Stockholm, which were made at Furudals Bruk

of this Swedish text also accompanies the porcelain) COHEN & COHEN (1999) Big Is Beautiful, p27, Cat 20, a large covered punchbowl and stand with scenes of a Swedish Royal visit to an unidentified mansion and estate.

Furudals Bruk as seen today

26.

A MASSIVE CHRISTENING BOWL Qianlong, circa 1795 English, Swedish, Danish or American Market Diameter: 22 ¾ inches (56cm) A large sepia and grisaille decorated punch bowl, enamelled with a pair of panels depicting 'Summer' after Bartolozzi alternating with two ship scenes, the rim with gilt and iron-red grapevine.

REFERENCES:

This bowl impresses with its unexpectedly large size. Such bowls are referred to as Christening bowls as a baby could be immersed in them, though there is little evidence that this was their intended use.

HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West.

Volumes I and II, p376, a plate with the Bartolozzi print.

This design is taken from one of the Four Seasons (Summer) by Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785), engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) and published by Pergolesi in London, 1782. Cipriani settled in England in 1755 arriving from Rome with his good friend Joseph Wilton (who founded the Royal Academy) and may have been inspired by Francois Boucher (1703-1770) who did a similar series of the seasons, which were engraved by Claude Duflos (1700-1786) some of whose engravings of 'fêtes champêtres' are also known on Chinese Export Porcelain. Cipriani died at Hammersmith in London and was buried at Chelsea, where Bartolozzi erected a monument to his memory.

An armorial service is known with a crest of a fox (or a marten) which has this design on it and plates are also known with the design Autumn from the series but Spring and Winter remain to be discovered, if they were used at all. The service included many elaborate items including pierced baskets and vases with pierced covers.

The Autumn design is also known on Wedgewood pearlware. Who ordered the service is unknown but Howard suggests it could be an English family called Martin. The service dates to circa 1782 so the print of this scene was already in Canton when this bowl was ordered. The use of the same Bartolozzi print twice but two different marine prints suggests that the overall design was making use of whatever was to hand.

The two maritime scenes are generic but the small flags have a cross which could be Swedish, Danish or possibly even a simplified version of the English merchant naval flag. Thus it is not possible to determine the precise market for which this was ordered, though its most recent provenance is Swedish. The borders and interior resemble items for the American Market of this period. Whichever it is, the bowl appears to be unique.

HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p335, the armorial service is discussed.

BUERDELEY, Michel (1962), Porcelain of the East India Companie, No 63a/b, 128, vases with pierced covers and an illustration of the Bartolozzi engraving.

PHILLIPS, John Goldsmith (1956) China Trade Porcelain, pp1645, figs 55 and 75, items with the Autumn designs and an example of the Wedgewood pearlware.

HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental, p320, two plates with Bartolozzi prints fig 13.97 (Autumn) and fig 13.96 (Summer).

CONNER, Patrick (1986) The China Trade 1600-1860, Cat 127, a plate with circular rim and the Autumn design.

LITZENBERG, Thomas V, (2003) Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection at Washington and Lee University, No 196, a plate of octagonal form with Autumn.

VEIGA, Jorge Getulio et al (1989) Chinese Export Porcelain in Private Brazilian Collections, p180, a dinner plate with Summer.

There are two types of people in this world, good and bad.

The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.

Woody Allen

Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order of things.

Samuel Beckett Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

John Dryden

29.

A SET OF SIX WALLPAPER PANELS Jiaqing, circa 1800 English Market Each panel: 69 1/4 x 18 inches (176 x 45.5cm) A set of six wallpaper panels painted with various kinds of birds and trees on a blue, paper backed, silk panel background.

A fine example of excellent quality draughtmanship and bold colouring. The birds are painted with life and dynamism against a bright blue background. The birds are not painted with great ornithological accuracy, though this is compensated for by the lively brushwork.

Among those that can be identified are: Red Crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) Phoenix (mythical) Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes) but wrongly given a black neck.

Chicken, Quail, Magpies, Geese and Pheasants, though the individual species cannot be determined.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Chinese Proverb

BIBLIOGRAPHY: ALVES, Jorge et al (1998) Caminhos da Porcelana - Dinastias Ming e Qing, Lisbon: Fundacao Oriente.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (1999) Porcelanas e Vidros, Lisbon: Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva.

ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (2000) Porcelana da China, Colecção Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, Lisbon.

ARAPOVA, T, MENSHIKOVA, M et al.

(2003) Chinese Export Art in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

AYERS, John (1985) Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection. London: Sotheby's Publications.

AYERS J, IMPEY O, MALLET J, (1990) Porcelain for Palaces.London: Oriental Ceramic Society.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo (1990) Porslinet Från Kina. Västerås, Sweden: Ica Bokförlag.

GYLLENSVÄRD, Bo et al. (1972) Kina Slott på Drottningholm, Malmö: Allhems Förlag HERVOUËT, F&N & BRUNEAU, Y, (1986) La Porcelaine Des Compagnies Des Indes A Décor Occidental. Paris: Flammarion.

HERBERT, P and SCHIFFER, N (1980) China For America, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd. HOWARD, DS & AYERS, J (1978) China For The West. Volumes I and II. London: Sotheby's Parke Bernet Publications.

HOWARD, David S, (1974) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, London: Faber and Faber.

HOWARD, David S, (2003) Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume II, Heirloom and Howard.

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