A Chinese porcelain German-decorated teabowl and saucer 1st half 18th century

A Chinese porcelain German-decorated teabowl and saucer 1st half 18th century, the finely potted forms left in the white and later-enamelled in the workshop of Johann Friedrich Metsch with en grisaille panels of European harbour scenes within polychrome formal borders, the rim with a formal foliate gilt design, the interior of the teabowl with insects, 11.8cm. (2)

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, no. 944. Purchased from E & H Manners, June 2011.

Metsch was a hausmaler decorating Meissen porcelain c.1740. While the bowl has elements of Meissen influence, the polychrome border is more typical of the earlier du Pacquier wares. Further examples of Metsch's work are in the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession nos. C.98-1930, C.743&A-1925, and C53&A-1948.