335.
A PAIR OF ‘BLANC DE CHINE’ EWERS AND COVERS WITH METAL MOUNT
the ewers Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount European, 18th century
13,7 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 3667, 3671.
The pear-shaped body of both the ewers rising from a low circular foot and surmounted by a cupped mouth encompassing a flat lid with a bud as finial, loop handle and a slender spout attached to the neck with a short curving bridge, the body decorated with high-relief sprays of prunus, the metal mount of one consisting of a chain linking the bud of the lid to the handle and a dragon’s head to the mouth of the spout, the other with a small domed cover substituting the original porcelain lid finial with a chain attached to the handle and a simpler gilt metal mouth to the spout.
A nearly identical wine ewer is in the British Royal Collection (J. Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 2 voll. London 2016, I, n. 90). Another comparable example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 79.2.486a, b); see also the similar piece illustrated in 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, n. 78, and the example in the Musée Guimet in Paris (inv. n. G1460).
