Antique 18C Encre de Chine Tea set Chine de Commande Hera and Peacock

无货

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Condition Report: Dish with 2 frits, 2 chips. Cup with some frits/chips and 2 lines. Size 12.3x1.9CM and 8x4CM DiameterxHeight

Teacup and saucer

China

1750-1760

Teacup and saucer on footrings, slightly everted rims. Decorated in encre de Chine and gold with a central scene of a crowned figure seated on a cloud beside a peacock, holding a scepter and wreath. On the rim a border of peacocks and panels edged in strapwork, floral festoons and foliate-scrolls after an early 18th century laub- und bandelwerk Viennese design; the teacup is similarly decorated with the same scene on the bottom..

The Greek goddess Hera called the Queen of Heaven, was a powerful queen in her own right, long before her marriage to Zeus, the mighty king of the Olympian gods. The goddess Hera ruled over the heavens and the earth, responsible for every aspect of existence, including the seasons and the weather. She was also worshipped as the Roman goddess Juno wife of Jupiter, the month June is named in her honour. It is partly on account of Hera’s great beauty, and particularly her beautiful. large eyes, that she is linked to the peacock with it’s iridescent feathers having “eyes”. The peacock symbolizes her luxury, beauty and immortality. The goddess Hera blessed and protected a woman’s marriage, bringing her fertility, protecting her children, and helping her find financial security. Hera was, in short, a complete woman, overseeing both private and public affairs. (goddessgift.com)

The source of the design is an engraving by Claude Audran III (1658-1734) as part of a series in which various Olympian gods and goddesses depict the months of the year, Hera/Juno symbolizes June. (Hervouët 1986, p.296), (Litzenburg 2003, p.190)

In 1722 Père d’Entrecolles reported that the Chinese were experimenting with painting in black, so far unsuccessfully. Black or schwarzlot, decoration, was also then just being developed in Europe, and in fact the German Hausmaler was putting it primarily on Chinese imported in the white, rather than on wares from the newly established Meissen factory. It must have been these hybrids that were sent back to Canton for imitation at the time of Père d’Entrecolle’s letter, but the perfection of the technique and its translation into commercial export porcelain came only later, under the direct influence of the Du Paquier period (1719-1744). Unique to the Viennese Du Paquier porcelain factory was the laub- und bandelwerk border, based on two series of engravings by Paul Decker (d.1713). Continually modified and varied its essential elements were strapwork, palmettes, trelliswork cartouches, and foliate scrolls combined into a rhythmical pattern of baroque formality. Other China trade versions of the laub- und bandelwerk border, such as the more usual one with the addition of peacock and with panels of quilting rather than trellis- or scale work, are farther removed from their Viennese factory prototypes, and are perhaps derived from Hausmaler variants. (Corbeiller 1974, pp.68-69)

For identically decorated objects, please see:

• De Chinese Porseleinkast, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer in Mededelingenblad Nederlandse Vereniging van Vrienden van de Ceramiek, vol. 52, 1968), pp. 64-67, cat. 294.
• China trade porcelain: patterns of exchange. Additions to the Helena Woolworth McCann collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (C. le Corbeiller, New York, 1974), p.69, cat. 30.
• Aziatische Ceramiek uit vijf eeuwen, exhibition catalogue of the J.M. van Diepen Collection, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Fraeylemaborg Slochteren, 1977), pp.72-73, cat. 199.
• Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, (E. Gordon, Universe Books, New York, 1977), p. 63, cat 48.
• La porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes a décor Occidental, (F. & N. Hervouët & Y. Bruneau, Flammarion – Pere Castor, Paris 1986), p.293, cat. 13.5.
• Fine Chinese Export Porcelain from the Collection of Angelo Castelo Branco Cerqueira Caldas, auction sale catalogue Sotheby’s London, 8th May 1990, pp.113-114, lot 233 & 235.
• The Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann Collection, European Furniture and Chinese Export Porcelain, auction catalogue Christie’s London 10 April 2002, pp.230-231, lot 443.
• Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection at Washington and Lee University, (Th. V. Litzenburg, London 2003), p.190, cat. 188.

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