A rare Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated saucer dish 1st half 18th century

A rare Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated saucer dish 1st half 18th century, originally plain with a brown line rim, later-enamelled in Holland with an allegorical scene of Taste, a Classical maiden seated with a basket of flowers, raising a piece of fruit to her mouth, while a monkey picks fruit from a large bowl at her feet, a figure climbs a ladder to pick fruit in an orchard behind, the rim with a wide border of petal-shaped panels containing further flowers in a palette of green, black, blue, red and gold, 21cm.

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, no. 931. Purchased from Giampaolo Lukacs-Donath, June 2010.

The subject is taken from a set of drawings by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), engraved by Adriaen Collaert in the early 17th century. The fruit-picker in the background of the plate does not feature in the original engraving, but probably relates to the Cherry-Picker design seen in lots 320 and 323.