306.
A PAIR OF POLYCHROME AND GILT ARMORIAL CANDLESTICKS
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, 1740-1745
24 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Riccardo De Sangro (1889-1978) collection.
inv. nn. S.1068-1069.
The coat of arms on these candlesticks – a coronet squirrel inside an oval cartouche framed by a scroll of Baroque leaves – belonged to Jan Albert Sichterman (1692-1764), a native of Groningen in Holland who made his fortune in the East Indies working for the VOC. After having lost his honour during a duel, in 1717 Sichterman moved to Bengal, becoming Director in 1734 and Plenipotentiary Extraordinaire to the Council of India in 1740. In 1744 he retired and decided to come back to Groningen with his family, where he lived in a magnificent house filled with the works of art he acquired in Asia. After his death, most of his collection was auctioned (C.J.A. Jörg, Oriental Porcelain in The Netherlands. Four Museum Collections, Groninger 2003, pp. 32-33, n. 26, for a five piece garniture in the Groningen Museum with a related style of decoration and the same coat of arms).
Another dish from the same service with the same coat of arms is in the Musée national Adrien Dubouché in Limoges (C. Shimizu (edited by), L’Odyssée de la porcelaine chinoise. Collections du Musée national de Céramique, Sèvres et due muse national Adrien Dubouché, Limoges, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2003, p. 229, n. 182; in the same book, at the previous number, a dish from the same period with the Sichterman’s coat of arms but with a ‘blue and white’ decoration); another dish with another different ‘blue and white’ decoration but the same coat of arms is in the Musée de la Compagnie des Indes (L. Mézin, Gargaisons de Chine. Porcelaines de la Compagnie des Indes du Musée de Lorient, Lorient 2002, n. 129).
