Unusual Dutch Delftware Figural Earthenware Ewer in Chinese Transitional style
Out of stock
Condition Report: Overall Condition; See description.
Ca 1650-1680
Height 238 mm (7.83 inch), diameter 125 mm (4.33 inch), diameter of mouthrim 47 mm (1.10 inch), diameter of foot 89 mm (2.68 inch), weight 627 grams (22.12 ounce (oz.))
Earthenware ewer of ovoid ribbed body on spreading foot, cylindrical neck and a large mouth with a pinched spout. Curved handle. The shallow conical base is glazed and has a piece of lead attached. Decorated in different shades of blue on a white tin glaze in Chinese Transitional style with figures in a mountainous landscape with pierced rockwork, trees and flowering plants. Round the shoulder a leafy scroll border and on the neck pointed leaves filled with leafy scrolls. On the handle dots and scrolls.
On the underside of the top of handle the remains can be seen of the spot were once a mount was affixed to the ewer. This mount, responsible for the glaze rough spots to the mouthrim, is now missing. It is unclear what the function of the piece of lead attached to the base might have been. The base is still intact so it is not attached by a drilled hole to base but in another way.
In the period (1630-1645) the VOC (Dutch East India Company, 1602–1799) ordered Chinese porcelain through the Company’s factory on Formosa (Taiwan). The Transitional style had been very popular in the Netherlands. As with kraak porcelain the decorative elements are taken from the repertoire of the Chinese Transitional style porcelain. After Chinese exports came to a standstill due to internal conflicts around 1647 the shapes and decorations of transitional porcelain were frequently imitated in Delft faience, this ewer is a good and rare example of those imitations copied by Delft potters. (Jörg 1984, p.14) & (Jörg 2011/1, p.123)
For similarly shaped or decorated ewers, please see:
- Austrumu porcellans un Niderlande. Austrumu un Rietumu mijiedarbiba 17. gadsimta / Oriental Porcelain and the Netherlands. Interaction between East and West in the 17th century, (C.J.A. Jörg, Art Museum Riga Bourse, Riga, 2011), pp. 180-181, cat. 58.
- Antiek Delftsch, (P. Riccardijn, C. Morks Cz., Dordrecht), p.7.
Condition: Various glaze damage spots on the body, rim, handle and foot. A chip to the foot and a hairline to the mouthrim. Overall tiny scratches to the tin glaze due to use.
References:
Jörg 1984, p.14 & cat. 16
Jörg 2011/1, cat. 58
Riccardijn, p.7