FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
Royal Splendour
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An
extremely Rare and Important Pair of Bow Vases and Covers, of very elegant
and slender baluster form, beautifully decorated in the imari style with
large sprays of flowering prunus and tree peonies, issuing from gnarled
holed stumps beside a hatched fence, the stems, branches and fence in a
light tone of underglaze blue, enriched in gold, the flowers in either red
with gold highlights or gold with red embellishments, below a thick border
of formal hatched diaper alternating with single stylised red flowerheads,
the base with a formal arched floral border, the domed covers with pointed
knop finials and further flowering peonies and similar diaper borders.
Circa 1749-1752.
Height: 9 ins. (23 cms.)
Marks: both with scratched R marks to the underside of each of the bases and also underglaze blue numeral 7’s to each vase and each cover.
Provenance: Private English Collection.
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These
superb vases come into the category of the ‘scratched’ or ‘R’
marked pieces. These in terms of style and analysis of the lustrous paste
and glaze, date from within the period of 1749-52. A close look at the
dated ‘made in New Canton’ inkwells (dated 1750) would appear to
correspond with the body of these vases. It is very interesting to note
the very careful way in which the underglaze blue has been employed in
several tones, this with the addition of the red and the gold creates a
stunning Imari effect, every bit as good as the imported vases that would
have been seen by the decorators in the manufactory when unloaded at quays
near to Stratford. The numerals in underglaze blue would undoubtedly have
been put on to ensure the right cover was put on each vase, to facilitate
the best fit. See the cover illustration Gabszewicz and Freeman, Bow
porcelain from the Geoffrey Freeman collection for a slightly larger vase
of 13 ins. But of the same period and bearing a scratch mark.