An exceptional ‘lighthouse-shaped’ Pronk coffee pot. Qianlong

Of tall conical shape with high domed pointed cover and bud finial above a collar, the tapering octagonal spout and strap handle at right angles. The decoration, especially designed in Europe, of turquoise green scales divided by a broad white area decorated with butterflies and insects above a shaped black band with famille rose flowers, the cover similarly decorated. The handle and the finial are later silver replacements.

Provenance

Exhibition : Café, plaisir au goût d’amertume, Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Port-Louis, 2022

Related works

From the best of our knowledges, only one example of this form is so far recorded and published by David Howard in The Choice of the Private Trader: The Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain Illustrated in the Hodroff Collection, 1994, p. 157, no. 171 (sold at Christie’s NYC, The Hodroff Collection, Part III, 21 january 2009, lot 206).

A teapot is in the collections of the Peabody Essex Museum and illustrated by William R. Sargent in Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, p. 292, no. 154.

Coffee cups, tea caddy and cream jug are also known. Underglaze blue pieces with this decoration are also known.

Bibliography: Christiaan Jörg, Pronk porcelain: porcelain after designs by Cornelis Pronk, 1980, pp. 77-81 for similar elements of design.

Notice

This unusual design was clearly the work of the studio of Cornelis Pronk. The scales and coloring appear on a number of other Pronk designs. Original handle of this model is like the ‘Trumpeter’ service, while similar butterflies and insects surround the ‘Harbour’ design.