210.
A GILT POWDER-BLUE GROUND AND ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ EWER AND COVER
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
19,2 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3682.
Standing on a low circular foot, the globular body rising to a pear-shaped neck surmounted by a domed cover with globular finial, curved spout and an ear-shaped handle, the external surface with a gilt floral decoration on a powder blue ground, the body with two lobed reserves with landscapes painted with the enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’ palette, the neck with two smaller leaf-shaped cartouches with floral compositions.
The comparable ewer in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon differs for the ‘birds and flowers’ compositions instead of landscapes in the largest reserves (M.A. Pinto de Matos, Chinese Porcelain in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, Lisbon 2003, pp. 84-86, n. 16); the similar piece in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (inv. n. 79.2.139) has a European gilt bronze domed cover with a lion-shaped handle; see also the similar ewer published by Margaret Medley (M. Medley, The Chinese Potter. A practical history of Chinese Ceramics, London 1976 (consulted edition, London 1989), p. 255, fig. 205) and the comparable piece with a light mount and cover in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (inv. 10966).
