A Chinese famille rose Pronk “Arbor” dish. Qianlong period.
Decorated after the Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk’s design with the classic topiary garden scene, the border with cartouches of moths, butterflies, flowers and fruits, the reverse with iron-red and purple lambrequin border.
- Country:
- China
- Period :
- Qianlong (1736-1795), circa 1740
- Material:
- Porcelain
- Dimension:
- 9.44 in. (24.5 cm)
- Reference :
- B684
- Status:
- sold
Related works
There are pieces with this designs in severals museums and private collections as The Metropolitan Museum (NYC, Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Winfield Foundation Gift), the Groninger Museum (Groningen), The Musée Guimet (Paris), The Dallas Museum of Art, The Rijkmuseum (Amsterdam), The Peabody Essex Museum (Salem), the Het Princessehof (Leeuwarden), the Reeves Collection (USA), The RA collection, The Musée de Lorient (France), The Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire (Brussels), the former Mottaheded Collection, The Hodroff Collection, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum (Rotterdam), The Victoria and Albert museum (London), the China Trade Museum (Milton).
Notice
According to Christiaan Jörg, the decoration on this piece corresponds to the fourth and last of Cornelis Pronk’s designs for the Dutch East India Company, The Arbour, finished in 1737, sent to Batavia en 1738, and received in Guangzhou in 1739. Chinese potters made six dinner services comprising 371 pieces, and eighteen tea sets using this design, painted both in underglaze blue and polychrome enamels and sent to Holland in 1740.
The arbour in this design is a topiary version of an architectural garden arch, a decidedly western form. In 1730, Pronk executed a watercolor of such a structure, which he based on the Cholon pavilion in the park that surrounds Bosh en Hove, an estate near Haarlem.
