Mottahedeh Blue & White Canton Monteith Bowl, After the Chinese Export Original

Details

Description

Blue and White Porcelain Monteith Bowl
Mottahedeh for the English Market (after a Chinese Export prototype, ca. 1720)

A finely … Read more Blue and White Porcelain Monteith Bowl
Mottahedeh for the English Market (after a Chinese Export prototype, ca. 1720)

A finely executed blue and white porcelain monteith bowl produced by Mottahedeh & Company, based on an early Qing dynasty Chinese Export prototype originally made for the English market circa 1720. The form is modeled after the traditional monteith, a large punch or wine cooling bowl with a distinctive notched rim designed to suspend wine glasses or punch cups by their foot rings, and was popular in aristocratic English households in the early 18th century.

The body of this example, measuring 12.5 inches in diameter and 6.5 inches high, features an undulating rim with eight shaped notches above a vertically paneled body, each segment decorated with a dense floral design in deep underglaze cobalt blue. Alternating vertical reserves contain flowering branches and rockwork motifs drawn from Chinese garden scenes, framed by a patterned diaper border and bands of pseudo-character fretwork, imitating Kangxi-period Chinese decorative conventions. The interior of the bowl is similarly adorned with a central medallion of floral sprays and a blue diaper-pattern border.

The underside bears a clear blue mark reading:
A Chinese Export Monteith Bowl made for the English Market circa 1720
with the Mottahedeh signature and logo below. Mottahedeh, founded in the 1920s, is best known for producing licensed historic reproductions for museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg, and the White House. This bowl was likely manufactured in the late 20th or early 21st century, possibly in Portugal, where many of Mottahedeh’s reproductions have been produced to exacting standards.

The original Chinese Export monteiths that inspired this reproduction are extremely rare and are found in the collections of the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The form reflects the unique cross-cultural relationship between China and Europe during the early 18th century, when Chinese porcelain was made to order for Western taste, often incorporating hybridized forms and motifs.

Measures:

12.5" w x 6.5" h. See less