325.
A POLYCHROME ENAMELED AND GILT CARP SHAPED TUREEN AND COVER
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, circa 1760-1780
8,5 x 22 x 11,5 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4637.
The fashion for animal shaped table ware spread in Europe toward the mid eighteenth century: many European ceramic factories produced this kind of pieces, such as Chelsea where a tureen in the shape of a plaice was created in 1756 circa (P. Glanville – H. Young, Elegant Eating: Four hundred years of dining in style, London 2002, pp. 100-101).
A related tureen is illustrated by William R. Sargent (W.R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection. Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem 1991, pp. 212-215), who also discusses the European models for such Chinese export items; another comparable Chinese tureen is 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, II, p. 588, n. 612; see also the pair published by Lunsingh Scheurleer (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain, Chine de Commande, London 1974, n. 190).
The existence of similar tureens with Spanish armorial suggests that this kind of container was intended for the Iberian market (see the pair with the arms of Domingo Esteban de Olza y Domezáin in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem: W.R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Yale 2012, n. 205; another similar item with the arms of José Bernardo de Gálvez y Gallardo is illustrate by Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, New York 1986, fig. 65).
The museum owns also another similar tureen (inv. n. 4631).
