Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

Three Chinese porcelain plates c.1760, two with later Dutch-decoration, all with original painting in underglaze blue of a pineapple and two other sprays of exotic fruit, two with later enamelling in red and green with large baskets of flowers and two panels of a fisherman before buildings, traces of gilding, and a large bowl similarly decorated with large baskets and small panels of fishermen, the original floral decoration highlighted in red, green and gilt, 26.2cm max. (4)

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, nos. 912, 358 and 339.

While the three plates in this lot provide an interesting contrast between the clean lines of the Chinese original and the colourful exuberance of the Dutch-enamelled versions, the bowl adds another contrast with the earlier outside-decoration in Holland, compared to that of the 1760s and '70s; the bowl adding polychrome in a sympathetic manner to the existing design, while the plates show the painter imposing his whim over the original decoration in a rampage of enamel. The distinctive blue and white pineapple pattern can be dated to c.1760, as it was found on Chinese porcelain on the East Indiaman, The Griffin, wrecked south of the Philippines in January 1761.