A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated bowl 1st half 18th century

A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated bowl 1st half 18th century, originally decorated with a wide anhua band within narrow hatched borders in underglaze blue, later enamelled with a six-petal flower and other sprays of red rose and rosebud, the interior with Oriental flowers in the same palette, 14.8cm.

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, no.345. Purchased from S. Marchant, June 1994.

The decoration of a rose spray with a bud, and the addition of a six-petal flower, possibly indicates a Jacobite significance. The throne of the deposed James II was taken by his daughter and her husband, William of Orange, James II's close alliance with France had made him unpopular in the Netherlands, but it is possible that some sympathy had returned among Republicans by the mid 18th century.