Decorated on one face with a splayed double-headed eagle within a lotus scroll border. The sides and reverse decorated with Chinese birds in prunus branches. The lid with a crane in a roundel.

Other related examples are recorded which show the eagle with a sceptre and a sword around initials below an Imperial crown.

Another canister of the same group was sold at Sotheby’s London (12 June, 2007, lot 594, £8,400) with a monogram identified as that of Peter the Great.

Chinese porcelain, Jingdezhen, 1685-1710
British Museum, Franks.604

A group of famille-verte apothecary jars with very similar insignia are known mostly in The Hermitage, St Petersburg and one in the British Museum. These apothecary jars are believed to be from of a group ordered for Peter the Great’s Moscow pharmacy in 1710.

Condition:
Surface scratches and wear

SOLD