Chinese canton enamel shell-shaped basin and nautilus shell-shaped ewer, mid-18th century

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Description

Chinese canton enamel shell-shaped basin and nautilus shell-shaped ewer, mid-18th century, the ewer imitating European metal shapes with distinctive helmet spout and looped handle, decorated with alternating radiating petal bands of blue, white, turquoise and pink grounds containing scrolling floral and foliate lotus design, with a curled beast depicted on either side of the body and with further foliate floral bands to the knopped and domed foot, the rim with yellow diaper pattern revealed behind the ogee-shaped tops of the floral panels, the exterior and interior of the spout with a section of pink flowering lotus and peony against a yellow ground, the large basin supported on three conical feet, with a large ruyi-head shaped cartouche of yellow ground with large flowerheads and scrolling foliage, from which radiate long petal-shaped cartouches in white containing large butterflies amongst tropical flowers and foliage, against a dark pink ground with further floral scroll pattern, the lobed rim with bands of scrolling lotus, green floral diaper and scrolling prunus blossom against a dark blue ground, the reverse similarly decorated.

Dimensions:

Height of ewer: 24.5cm. (9 5/8in.); diameter of basin: 37.5cm. (14 3/4in.)

Condition:

Damaged

Notes:
A very similar enamel ewer and basin from the J.A. Lloyd Hyde Collection is illustrated in The China Institute in America (1969/70). ‘Chinese Painted Enamels’ no. 8, where it is suggested that this shape is copying 17th century Portuguese silver orginals. See also Howard and Ayers (1978). China for the West, op. cit., pl. 125, for an example of this shape in porcelain, dated 1720-1725, in the Mottahedeh collection.

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Product REF: W892