238.
A ‘CAFÉ AU LAIT’-GROUND ‘FAMILLE ROSE’ BOX AND COVER
Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
14 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3303.
This kind of decoration, combining polychrome enamels and a iron oxide brown ground, is known with the term “Batavian” with a reference to the old name of the city of Jakarta which was from the seventeenth century the head quarter of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Asia.
The glaze is also known as ‘café au lait’, produced already during the Kangxi reign, often used as a ground for reserves with motifs painted with the enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’, ‘Imari‘ and ‘blue and white’ palettes, which were substituted by ‘Famille Rose’ enamels from the Yongzheng period.
