114.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ BOX AND COVER WITH GILT METAL MOUNT
the box Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount probably French, second half of the 18th century
20 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3515.
The cylindrical box with round base and domed cover, the external surface with stylized floral scrolls inside bands of triangular cartouches reserved on a ‘crackled-ice’ ground, the Neoclassical metal mount underlining the mouth of the box and the lower side of the cover, a round plaque with a lobed handle to the centre of the cover, a underglazed blue double concentric circle to the centre of the base.
For a very similar box, also with a European metal mount, in the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt am Main, see G. Avitabile – S.G. von der Schulenburg, Chinesisches Porzellan, Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 84, n. 151; the piece published by Lunsingh Scheurleer (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europäischen Fassungen, Braunschweig 1980, p. 243, n. 142), with a nearly identical mount, probably originally formed a pair with the piece here discussed; a comparable box with the original domed cover belonged to the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), now in the Porzellansammlung in Dresden (inv. PO 1225).
