Jar cover
Category
Ceramics
Date
1740 - 1770
Materials
Porcelain
Measurements
300 mm (Height); 360 mm (Diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 771444.2
Summary
Cover, porcelain, domed with Buddhistic lion finial, for a monumental jar, one of a pair, elaboarately painted in 'famille rose' enamels with a dense geometric arrangement of floral and cloud-head motifs at the waisted neck, and an iron-red ground,, China, JIngdezhen, decorated in Guangzhou (Canton), circa 1740-70.
Full description
Massive jar and cover, one of a pair, porcelain, painted in 'famille rose' enamels with phoenix on rockwork in a garden, circa 1740-70. These large jars in the Long Gallery, which according to family tradition may have been acquired in the 19th century, they are identifiable in a 1920s inventory of the contents of Middleton Park, Bicester, the Child's sesat in Oxfordshire. These large "parade" or "mandarin" jars match a description by a German tourist Sophie von La Roche (1730-1806) during a visit to Osterley in 1786: 'There are tremendous Japanese vases in there also, large enough to conceal Carl [her younger brother]', in 'Tagebuch einer Reise durch Holland und England (Journal of a Journey through Holland and England)', Offenbach, 1788, translated by Clare Williams as 'Sophie in London', London, 1933.See Anthony du Boulay, 'The Porcelain at Osterley', Apollo, April 1995, p.19-22. These large jars painted with phoenix amongst rockwork and flowers, sometimes with ensuite fishbowls or cisterns, either have narrow iron-red bands around the shoulder and iron-red whorls around the foot, as here, or are painted without the iron-red band with the elaborate neck design extending over the shoulder, an example of the latter is at Polesden Lacey, Surrey (NT), and the same form is found in underglaze blue, c. 1740-60, at Petworth, West Sussex (NT).
Provenance
Osterley Park Heirloom. Part of the Jersey bequest, March 1993