A Chinese Export Porcelain Linglong Teapot

A Chinese Export Porcelain Linglong Teapot, Qianlong Period c.1760-1770. This square Chinese porcelain teapot is double walled, that is to say there is an inner body with a gap at the top, so the teapot can be filled and the spout starts with the inner section. The outer wall is pierced with the inner body just visible there the network of shaped cut out clay. The teapot decorated in the Famille Rose colour scheme with the addition of gilding (worn). The present piece is an example of what can be referred to as `reticulated` porcelain, reticulated meaning having the form or appearance of a net, it was used as early the beginning of the 18th Century by the famous Jesuit Père Francois Xavier d`Entrecolles (1664-1741) to describe this type of work on porcelain. Another popular term for this type of pierced or cut decoration is `Devils Work` or Guigong. However the Chinese term Linglong is gradually replacing the previous terms, helped by the publication of Jorge Welsh`s book `Linglong` (Jorge Welsh,London,2004.ISBN 972-99045-2-9). There does not seem to be any difference in the use of terms between the free standing pierced porcelain or that supported by an inner wall, nor a distinction made between the most refined work or the type with larger cut-out sections of porcelain.

SOLD