452.
A PAIR OF PAINTED ENAMEL CIRCULAR DISHES
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
21,1 cm diam each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 5319, 5322.
Raising on a large circular foot, the interior of both the dishes painted in polychrome enamels of the ‘Famille Rose’ palette with a gorgeous floral composition framed by a wave-shaped band with a continuous vegetal scroll, the interior of the rim with a similar scroll painted in blue on a light blue ground, the back of the walls decorated with three lotus flower scrolls, a polychrome bouquet to the centre of the base.
According to a letter of 1720 by Father de Mailla, the earliest Chinese painted enamels were finally produced in Beijing in the last years of the reign of Kangxi (see previous entry), who already greatly appreciated the gift of some European enamels sent by King Louis of France in 1687 through the intermediation of some Jesuit priests, and among them Father Jean de Fontaney (L. Vinhais – J. Welsh (edited by), China of All Colours. Painted Enamels on Copper, London 2015, p. 18). The first arrival of this kind of Chinese items in Europe could be traced back to 1728, when Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chestefield, wrote in a letter that he bought some enamelled metal objects, considering them an entirely new kind of product (L. Mengoni, Adapting to foreign demands. Chinese enameled copperwares for the Thai market, in A. Håbu – D. F. Rooney (edited by), Royal Porcelain for Siam. Unpacking the Ring Collection, Oslo 2013, pp. 107-124), p. 112). The British ambassador acquired those painted enamels probably in Canton, the coastal city which in the eighteenth century hosted the European delegations and a main centre of the commerce between China and the rest of the world. It can also be argued that a great part of these later painted enamels were realized in Canton, probably in the same workshops where a part of the porcelain previously fired in Jingdezhen was decorated (R. L. Hobson, A Note on Canton Enamel, in “The Burlington Magazine for Conoisseurs”, XXII, 1912, 117, pp. 165-166, p. 166).
