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Lot Essay
The present lot depicts three scenes with Classical goddesses. The central panel on the saucer depicts Cybele (the Great Mother of the Gods) in her chariot drawn by two lions, who is met with a beggar woman offering a laurel wreath. The cup is painted with a panel depicting Vertumnus (God of Seasons) and Pomona (Goddess of Abundance), and another with Ceres (Goddess of Agriculture), Pomona and Flora (Goddess of Flowers). All three scenes are set in a landscape that is executed in a Western stippling technique, and reserved on a composite floral ground with exotic flower blossoms resembling a Western-style millefleurs border. The designs were most likely inspired from engravings.
The present lot is of the highest quality and was made when enamel decoration was at its apogee in China. Compare two nearly identical sets of cups and saucers in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with museum numbers C.39-1962 (Fig. 2) and C.31&A-1969. As explained in the Victoria and Albert Museum online note, despite the origin of the decoration, these vessels were not intended for the western market, but a reflection of the fascination with European style and motifs at the Chinese court. Compare to another saucer with identical design from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, New York, see D. Howard and J. Ayers’ China for the West- Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection, London, 1978, pp. 636-637, no. 662.
A further cup and saucer of similar size and design, but with a taller foot and a cover from an Italian collection, was sold at Christie’s Paris, 10 December 2020, lot 129.
The present lot is of the highest quality and was made when enamel decoration was at its apogee in China. Compare two nearly identical sets of cups and saucers in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with museum numbers C.39-1962 (Fig. 2) and C.31&A-1969. As explained in the Victoria and Albert Museum online note, despite the origin of the decoration, these vessels were not intended for the western market, but a reflection of the fascination with European style and motifs at the Chinese court. Compare to another saucer with identical design from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, New York, see D. Howard and J. Ayers’ China for the West- Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection, London, 1978, pp. 636-637, no. 662.
A further cup and saucer of similar size and design, but with a taller foot and a cover from an Italian collection, was sold at Christie’s Paris, 10 December 2020, lot 129.