Krystal Liu
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Lot 126
A GARNITURE OF FIVE FAMILLE ROSE 'PARROT-ON-A-SWING' VASES Qianlong period, circa 1740
24 January 2023, 10:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$31,875 inc. premium
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Michael Hughes
Vice President and Head of Department
A GARNITURE OF FIVE FAMILLE ROSE 'PARROT-ON-A-SWING' VASES
Qianlong period, circa 1740
Comrpising three pear-shaped globular bottle vases and two trumpet-necked beaker vases, each painted in rich enamels with a parrot perched on a swing clutching a branch of two cherries in one claw and standing on a support with a small feeding tray and a short link-chain at the center, the top of the necks with iron-red and gilt cartouches below thin blue line at the brown-dressed rims and another at the foot.
11 1/4in (28.5cm) high
Comrpising three pear-shaped globular bottle vases and two trumpet-necked beaker vases, each painted in rich enamels with a parrot perched on a swing clutching a branch of two cherries in one claw and standing on a support with a small feeding tray and a short link-chain at the center, the top of the necks with iron-red and gilt cartouches below thin blue line at the brown-dressed rims and another at the foot.
11 1/4in (28.5cm) high
Footnotes
乾隆時期 約1740年 粉彩《鞦韆鸚鵡》飾瓶一套五件
Provenance:
Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection
Published:
Cohen & Cohen, The Elephant in the Room, Antwerp, 2019, pp. 72-77, no. 26
來源：
Leo 與 Doris Hodroff舊藏
出版：
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《The Elephant in the Room》，安特衛普，2019年，頁72-77，圖版編號26
This is a fine example of this rare design traditionally attributed to the Pronk workshop, though it is probably not by Cornelis Pronk himself. The VOC set up a venture in the 1730s to make very high-quality porcelains in China to specific designs produced in the West but in the Chinese style. They employed Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk to make designs for these and he produced four sets of drawings over about three and half years that were sent out to Batavia. From there the designs were taken to Canton and manufacture was commissioned by Chinese agents. The designs were elaborate and used bright enamel coloring.
Eventually these proved too expensive, and the venture was abandoned in about 1740, though some of the designs were revived in the later 18th century, including the Parasol design for which an original drawing survives - and a 'flowers and moth' design recombining details from prints by Marie Sybilla Merian - which had also been used for various other details in the Pronk designs. What remains today is a rare and fascinating range of porcelains, with distinctive coloring and of a very high quality.
These bottle shapes are uncommon, though similar garnitures are found with the 'Doctor's Visit', an established Pronk design, both in blue and white and famille rose. The coloring of the parrots closely follows that of the Meissen/Schenk design, also found on a Chinese famille rose example with white face, blue head, yellow forewings and pink body. The Schenk drawing has not been found but it is possible that he produced the designs for both of these parrots as they share the same elements: cherries, a chain and a small tray attached to the perch seen in another pair of plates in this sale (lot 52).
One bottle vase is also known with this design on a celadon ground, which is known on a pair of Archer vases (another Pronk design) but otherwise very rare. All of which indicates that these designs are all contemporary and interconnected in their creation and with the Pronk workshop production.
For other examples see F. Gordon Morrill Collection, Doyle, NY, September 16, 2003, lot 25, where another five-piece garniture was sold; also Christie's Amsterdam, 18 November 18, 1997, lot 114; and Christie's New York, 02 June 1994, lot 408.
References: Williamson, 1970, plate XLII, a famille rose teabowl and saucer with this design; Howard, 1994, p. 240, no. 284, a blue and white five-piece garniture with the Pronk design, the 'Doctors's Visit' which has the same unusual shapes as here; and Jörg, 1980, p. 79, a famille rose 'Doctors's Visit' bottle like these, which is also on the cover.