230.
TWO POLYCHROME AND GILT BOTTLES
the porcelain Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century; the decoration Dutch, 1710-1730
22 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 4169, 4171.
The two bottles belong to a group of Kangxi porcelains with an original decoration in underglaze copper red consisting of mythological beasts (W. Qingzheng (edited by), Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong 1998, pl. 79; see also the vases from the collection of Augustus the Strong, now in the Porzellansammlung in Dresden:
E. Ströber, «La maladie de porcelaine». East Asian Porcelain from the Collection of Augustus the Strong, Leipzig 2001, pp. 50-51, n. 18) and the addition of a Japanese style polychrome decoration painted in Holland around 1710-1730, presumably all realized in the same workshop also because of the presence on the base of all of them of red pseudo-Chinese characters, such as those also visible on the bottles of the Duca di Martina museum (H. Espir, European Decoration on Oriental Porcelain 1700-1830, London 2005, pp. 92-93, fig. 27, where a bottle with a similar decoration is compared to a Kangxi piece with red beasts, both the pieces in the collections of the British Museum, London: see also p. 94, fig. 28 for a Japanese bottle with a related decoration).
