An 18th Century Dutch Decorated En Grisaille Chinese Export Porcelain Tea Bowl and Saucer.

An 18th Century Dutch Decorated En Grisaille Chinese Export Porcelain Tea Bowl and Saucer, Jingdezhen Kilns, China. This Chinese tea bowl and saucer from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) was ordered by the Dutch East Indies Company, the V.O.C. Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie without any decoration. As much as 10% of the porcelain imported porcelain was blank, left in the white to be decorated in Europe. This En Grisaille, literally meaning ‘in greyness’, tea bowl and saucer was almost certainly decorated in the Netherlands, independent decorators could paint what they thought would be commercially viable. The decoration found on this relates to a relatively small group of Chinese Export Porcelain tea wares thought to have been decorated in Holland between about 1750 and 1760.

The subject matter is of Dutch rustic landscapes with cow herders and their cows approaching a wooden bridge with a farm on the other side of the water buildings. This En Grisaille line drawing is in the style of a Dutch print is contained within a gilded border. The decoration is well executed, the painting is confident and free flowing. Superficially, the decoration gives the appearance of being copied from an engraving, however on closer inspection the free drawing of the lines appears closer to what one would expect to see on an etching. The minimum use of cross-hatching, the use curved lines, dots and dashes are also closer to etching than engraving.