Jar cover
Category
Ceramics
Date
1765 - 1775
Materials
Porcelain, with polychrome enamels and gold
Measurements
350 x 280 mm.
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 771446.2
Summary
Cover, porcelain, domed with a seated Buddhistic lion finial, to a monumental jar, one of a pair, painted in 'famille rose' enamels with flowers in foliate reserves on a blue ground, gilt with prunus blossoms, China, Jingdezhen, decorated in Guangzhou (Canton), circa 1765-75.
Full description
Massive jar and cover, one of a pair, porcelain, painted in 'famille rose' enamels on a blue ground, circa 1765-75. These large jars in the Long Gallery, which according to family tradition may have been acquired in the 19th century, are identifiable in a 1920s inventory of the contents of Middleton Park, Bicester, the Child's seat in Oxfordshire. The large "parade" or "mandarin" jars match a description in a diary 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. Jars of this shape are painted in 'famille rose' enamels or underglaze blue as at Petworth, West Sussex (NT). A similar pair of jars with blue grounds was made for the Portuguese market, circa 1773-5, and have the coat of arms of the Portuguese merchant based in Brazil, Joaquim Inacio da Cruz Sobral (1725-81), who was ennobled in 1773: they are in the Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes (Inv. 389 & 390). (P.Ferguson, 2013)
Provenance
Osterley Park Heirloom. Part of the Jersey bequest, March 1993