The Helen Espir Collection - 12th November 2014
Lot 387
A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated spittoon and a tea canister 1st half 18th century
Estimate £600 - £1,000 | Hammer £600
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Description
A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated spittoon and a tea canister 1st half 18th century, the body and wide rim of the spittoon with anhua decoration of flower scrolls, later-enamelled with birds perched in bold branches of flowering peony, the tea canister with original underglaze blue diaper bands, later-decorated with two deer in a landscape with ruyi fungus, the reverse with a bird on a prunus branch, 9.5cm high max. (2)
Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, nos. 566 and 593.
Illustrated: Helen Espir, European Decoration on Oriental Porcelain, p.110, pl.45 for the spittoon.
The Dutch were not the only decorators to use the pattern featured on this spittoon. Josiah Spode produced sixteen variations of this design in the 19th century, the pattern being known at that factory as 'Tumbledown Dick'.