158.
A PAIR OF ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ EWERS, ONE WITH GILT METAL MOUNT
the ewers Qing dynasty, late 17th century; the mount probably Dutch, late 17th century
22,8 cm and 26 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 4086, 4093.
The moulded globular body surmounted by a cylindrical neck with a rib toward the mouth, a gently curved spout attached to the shoulder, the external surface of both the pieces painted in black, green, red and yellow enamels with floral meanders (lotus, camellia, peonies and others), one ewer with a finely casted mount rising from the lower section of the neck to the mouth, the gilt metal handle shaped as a caryatid and the domed cover with a small bird-shaped trigger.
A nearly identical ewer with the same gilt metal mount was in the Medici family collection, now in Palazzo Pitti, Florence (F. Morena, Dalle Indie orientali alla corte di Toscana. Collezioni di arte cinese e giapponese a Palazzo Pitti, Florence 2005, p. 216, n. 133); see also the comparable pair in the National Museum in Copenhagen, notable because of the very similar gilt bronze mount (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europäischen Fassungen, Braunschweig 1980, p. 236, tav. 128); the similar ewer in the Philadephia Museum of Art (inv. n. 1955-50-315) is noteworthy because of the presence of the original domed cover with a small bud-shaped finial; another related ewer is in the Princesshof Museum, Leeuwarden (inv. OKS 1971-036).
