234.
A ‘FAMILLE ROSE’ FIVE PIECES GARNITURE
Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
32 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 4123, 4125, 4126, 4128, 4130.
The vases standing on a splayed foot rising to the six flat and inclined walls of the body, the shoulder surmounted by a flared neck, two pieces with a domed cover with a Buddhist lion shaped finial, a lobed opening surrounded by floral scrolls to the centre of each side of the foot, the remaining external surface of the vases with a ground of moulded hexagonal cells framed both vertically and horizontally with a series of moulded bamboo trunks, an hexagonal cartouche with a floral composition or a landscape to the centre of each side of the body, the shoulder and the neck, the decoration painted with polychrome enamels and touches of gold.
Chinese ceramists in Jingdezhen begun to produced groups of similarly decorated vases such as this (usually three, five or seven pieces with two or three different shapes) during the Kangxi period, continuing for the whole eighteenth century, probably inspired by those set of vases realized for the internal market and used as altar equipment. These ensembles destined to the European market are also known with the French definition of garniture de cheminée because, usually, they were placed – depending on their dimensions – on the upper shelf of the chimneys or inside their mouth during the summer, according to a taste developed from the late seventeenth century mainly thanks to the ornamental inventions of Daniel Marot (1661-1752), a talented decorator who worked at the court of Queen Mary d’Orange of England.
