A rare Chinese export faience-form blue and white tureen. Yongzheng

A rare Chinese export blue and white tureen, of shaped oblong outline with eel handle, decorated with flowers, the interior painted with a single flower.

Related works

For a very similar tureen, without stand, from the collection of Mrs. Mildred R. Mottahedeh (New York) see Christie’s NYC, English Pottery and Chinese Export Art, 28 january 2013, lot 409 (sold 16.250 USD).

Notice

This tureen copies the form of faience tureens made at the Guillebaud factory at Rouen in circa 1728, when a set was presented to the Duc de Montmorency-Luxembourg by the city to celebrate his appointment to Governor of Normandy.

A Rouen tureen, cover and stand, bearing the arms of Lambert, seigneur de Lambermont et du Buisson, is illustrated in the Répertoire de la Faience Française, Paris, 1933, vol. 4, pl. 134B.

Another Rouen example is in the Musée des Beaux Arts at Rouen (see W. B. Honey, European Ceramic Art, London, 1952, pl. 88A for the stand).

Although the finial is frequently referred to as a snake or serpent, it has been suggested that it actually represents an eel, which would be appropriate for French faience due to its popularity as a French gastronomic delicacy.

A Chinese famille verte tureen, cover and stand is in the Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Lorient, which was included in the exhibition Cargaisons de Chine, 26 June – 30 November 2002, catalogue no. 7.

Another tureen, cover and stand of this form is in the Abbey Berne in Heeswijk, North Brabant and is illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain – Chine de Commande, London, 1974, colour plate C, p. 206.

Another was exhibited at the China Institute in America, China Trade Porcelain, 1973-4, cover and pl. 23. A further example from the Mottahedeh Collection, without a stand, is illustrated by Howard and Ayers, China for the West, London and New York, 1978, vol.II, no. 570.