QIANLONG 1736 – 1795. Chinese Export Porcelain.

A Rare Chinese Export Porcelain Blue and White `Tea Production` Sauce-Boat, Early Qianlong Period c.1740. This Piece is from the Well Known but Rare Service Depicting the Cultivation and Marketing of Tea. The Baroque Shell Border is Shown in the Well, the Main Scene Appears to Depict a Foreman Overseeing Workers Packing Boxes of Tea, with a Separate Figure Observing the Scene from a Window. The Base is Numbered `4.` in Blue and White. The Decoration on this Piece is Quite Blurred.
SOLD

Condition
Three small glaze chips : top of lobe and the other two on the underneath of the spout. The decoration on the exterior is quite blurred.
Size
Length : 24.5 cm (9 2/3 inches). Height : 9.6 cm (3 3/4 inches)
Provenance
N/A
Stock number
204891
References
For a plate of this pattern See : The Choice of the Private Trader, The Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain illustrated from the Hodroff Collection (David S.Howard, Zwemmer,1994. ISBN 0 302 00642 7) Page 84 Item 69. Also See : China for the West, Chinese Porcelain & other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection ( David S. Howard and John Ayers, Sotheby`s,1978), Pages 214 and 215.

Photos

Information

The main design as well as the Baroque border pattern (In the well of this piece) were specially commissioned after a set of Chinese paintings depicting tea cultivation, each of the designs were numbered. Howard (See first reference below) speculates "The border was probably first used (in famille rose) on an armorial service for the Snoek family of Amsterdam. It is possible that there is some link between the two services, for a set a set of twenty four of these plates is known in Holland".