Description
A rare Chinese enamel stem bowl and cover, finely painted with three panels depicting Europeans in Classical dress on an elaborate ground richly painted with an abundance of flowers, leaves and scrolls, the flared foot and cover decorated with bands of fruit and foliage and with four pink bat motifs encircling the top, unmarked, Qianlong 1736-95, small repaired chips to the top of the cover, 13cm. (2)
Provenance: Sackville, 5th Earl of Yarborough.
Cf. Lloyd-Hyde, Chinese Painted Enamels, The China Institute in America, no. 19 for a related plate, also illustrated by Howard & Ayers, China for the West, Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export, illus. from the Mottahedeh collection, no. 662.
One panel depicts Ceres, Pomona and Flora beneath a tree, another shows Vertumnus and Pomona with Cupid at their feet, cf. Hervouet, pp.297 & 309, Nos. 13.22 & 13.67. The third detail is possibly also Vertumnus and Pomona.
With thanks to Will Motley for his help in identifying these scenes.