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Pair of Armorial Monteiths Yongzheng period circa 1735 Portuguese Market Height: 12 inches; 30cm
Periera
A very fine pair of Chinese export porcelain armorial monteiths with a Portuguese coat of arms, the body with extensive anhua incised decoration of lotus and other flowers.
Pinto
The quartered arms are: Periera, Pinto, Guedes and Pimentel. Pereira: the cross in the Pereira arms commemorates Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira (1360-1431) The arms are for Cosme Damião Pinto Pereira, Fidalgo of the Royal Household, Lord of the Quinta do Vale dos Moinhos and Quinta das Conchas in Lumiar, Lisbon. He was Captain-General and Governor of Macao for two periods, 1733-1735 and 1743-1747. He ordered several services, all of which appear to have this anhua incised decoration but some later ones have additional famille rose sprays of flowers. These monteiths are from the earliest service. Provenance: collection of Florentina (Cuqui) Fierro Viña in the Plaza de Marqués Salamanca. References: Castro 1988, p78-9, details of this service; Ibid p 67, a monteith with the Royal arms of Portugal, the same crenellation but a different body shape.
43
Dinner Plate Qianlong period circa 1750 European Market Diameter: 9 inches; 23cm A Chinese export porcelain dinner plate painted en grisaille and gilt with a central monogramme framed by a baroque canopy, drapes and floral swags, the rim with a du Paquier style border.
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. attr. Jonathan Swift
100
This is a very finely painted example of this ‘pseudo-armorial’ type. It is almost certainly made for a marriage as the monogramme contains quite a few letters entwined and the canopy suggests a bed, with two billing doves below. Designs like this were frequently used as framing devices for vignettes and title page panels in books of the early 18th century, notably by the printmaker Bernard Picart.