A RARE CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE 'PHOENIX' WALL SCONCE

A RARE CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE 'PHOENIX' WALL SCONCE
QIANLONG C.1740

After a design by Cornelis Pronk, the centre painted with a phoenix rising from flames beneath a gilt sunburst, in a moulded silver and gilt cartouche with green and aubergine foliate strapwork with iron-red detailing, surmounted by a palmette device flanked by Chinese pheasants, the lower section pierced for mounting with a candle-arm, the reverse with two pierced holes for suspension and a paper label reading 'Rafi Y Mottahedeh Collection', 38.8cm.

Provenance: formerly the Mottahedeh Collection; sold by Sotheby's New York, 30th January 1985, lot 186.

Literature: C Jörg, Pronk Porcelain: Porcelain after designs by Cornelis Pronk, pp.37-38, no.14; Sekai Toji Zenshu/Ceramic Art of the World: China, Ch'ing dynasty and Annamese and Thai ceramics, vol.12, p.224, fig.168.

Exhibited: Virginia Museum, 1981-82.

Cornelis Pronk is understood to have created the wooden moulds for porcelain wall sconces of the type offered here, originally known as 'tapestry sconces' and taken from earlier examples in Delftware. These moulds are recorded to have been sent to Batavia in 1737, mentioned in a letter accompanying the VOC ship Heeren XVII on her voyage that year, with detailed instructions on how to produce the sconces. The piece offered here appears to be particularly rare, along with another example decorated with a chinoiserie torchbearer. Prof Christian Jörg specifies that 'no other objects with the torchbearer or phoenix are known, so it must be taken that these sconces were ordered privately after separate designs' (op.cit., p.37).