A Japanese porcelain Dutch-decorated teabowl and saucer early 18th century

A Japanese porcelain Dutch-decorated teabowl and saucer early 18th century, originally left in the white and later-enamelled in Holland with a couple and Harlequin standing at the water's edge with a village scene beyond, within a simulated jewelled border, 11.3cm. (2)

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, no. 773. Purchased from Errol Manners, February 2000.

Illustrated: Helen Espir, European Decoration on Oriental Porcelain, p.167, pl.17.

The Commedia dell'Arte was a popular subject on Meissen porcelain in the 1730s and '40s, and it is likely that this is from where the decoration here derives. However, the style remains very much in the Dutch manner with tall trees and a typical village beyond.