195.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ ENAMELED BISCUIT HEN-SHAPED EWER
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
13 x 15 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3301
The missing cover of this ewer should have the shape of a chick, as seen on a very similar example published by D. Howard – J. Ayers, China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection, 2 voll., London – New York 1978, II, n. 602: the authors note that ewers with animal shapes were produced already in late Ming period, while Johann Joachim Kändler (1706–1775) found inspiration in a similar Chinese porcelain item for the Meissen teapot he created in 1734.
Another comparable ewer is in the Benaki Museum in Athens (G. Manginis, China Rediscovered. The Benaki Museum Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Athens-London 2016, pp. 42-43, n. 19); see also the pair in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. nn. 44.102.2a, b) and the related example in the Peabody Essex Museum (W.R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Yale 2012, n. 245).
