18th-Century Chinese Export Blue & White Porcelain Soup Tureen, Cover & Stand

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Description

Chinese Export Porcelain Underglaze Blue Tureen, Cover, and Stand
Qianlong Period, Circa 1745–1765

This three-piece Chinese Export porcelain tureen set … Read more Chinese Export Porcelain Underglaze Blue Tureen, Cover, and Stand
Qianlong Period, Circa 1745–1765

This three-piece Chinese Export porcelain tureen set is a good example of 18th-century blue and white decoration. Showcasing an elegant, silver-inspired rectangular form with canted corners, the set remains remarkably intact with its original matching cover and under-plate (stand).

Each piece is expertly painted in a brilliant underglaze blue. The central vignettes feature a highly detailed, fenced peony garden where a pheasant observes its mate perched on a pierced scholar's rock, while a pair of Drongos takes flight in the distance. The rims of the tureen, cover, and stand are beautifully framed by shaped demi-flowerhead panels that issue scrolling tendrils and flowering vines. The sculptural elements are equally impressive: the tureen is flanked by robust, applied lion-mask handles, and the cover is surmounted by a superb recumbent lion finial. The piece is finished with traditional brown-dressed rim edges.

Measurements:
Tureen: 8 3/4 inches (22.2 cm) High (Total height: 10 inches) x 13 1/8 inches (33.3 cm) Long (over handles) x 8 7/8 inches (22.5 cm) Wide
Stand: 14 3/4 inches (37.5 cm) Long x 11 1/4 inches (28.6 cm) Wide x 2 1/2 inches (6.4 cm) High

Provenance:

H. Moog Fine Porcelains, Atlanta, Georgia. (Henry B. Moog, 1938–2012, was a highly respected expert and dealer in Chinese export porcelain).

Property from a North Shore, Massachusetts Collection.

Historical Context: The Centerpiece of the Table

During the 18th century, dining among the European and American elite followed the Service à la française (Service in the French style), where dozens of dishes were placed on the table simultaneously in a highly symmetrical, architectural layout. The soup tureen was the undisputed centerpiece of this grand display, designed to convey the host's wealth and refined taste.

Because Western dining customs required specific serving vessels that did not exist in traditional Chinese dining, European merchants sent wooden models or silver prototypes to Jingdezhen for the potters to copy. The canted rectangular shape of this tureen, along with its applied lion-mask handles and sculptural finial, are direct translations of European Rococo silver masterworks rendered in hard-paste porcelain.

Simultaneously, the painted motifs catered to the West's romanticized view of "Cathay." The pairing of the pheasant and the peony is a classic Chinese motif symbolizing beauty, good fortune, and abundant wealth—making it a perfectly auspicious design for the center of a lavish banquet table.

(Ref: NY11085-nkru) See less