A PAIR OF ‘IMARI’ WINE COOLERS WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT

217.

A PAIR OF ‘IMARI’ WINE COOLERS WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT
the wine coolers Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the mount French, first quarter of the 18th century
27,5 cm high each
Provenance: Placido de Sangro, duke of Martina (1829-1891).
inv. nn. 4708, 4710.

The two female bronze figures on these two coolers show clear affinities with the mount on a pair of bowls with covers in the Musée du Louvre in Paris (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europäischen Fassungen, Braunschweig 1980, n. 157); see also the very similar bronze mermaids on a pair of Kangxi vases 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, II, p. 472-473, n. 1232-1233) and on the pair of ‘Famille Verte’ jars in the Meiyintang collection (R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Meiyintang Collection, 2 volls, London 1994, II, n. 784).

A similar ‘Imari’ wine cooler belonged to the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), now in the Porzellansammlung in Dresden (inv. PO 5531).