Whilst Dehua, blanc de chine, beakers were plentiful, Dehua saucers were exceedingly rare, and it was therefore necessary to match them, in this case, with a French Saint-Cloud saucer. A piquée d’or beaker in the British Museum is matched with a Japanese, Arita, saucer.[i]
A similar piece can be identified in the inventory of the Regent, Phillippe II, Duc d’Orléans in the Gardemeuble where it is listed as:
3552 Un gobelet et une soucoupe de porcelain blanche en relief garnis et piquez d’or, 100.[ii]
The term en relief refers to the raised prunus design often found on blanc de chine. It is given the price of 100 livre which is very high for a small item.
Another beaker and saucer ‘en porcelaine blanche piquée et garnie d’or’ are in the inventory of the second wife of the Prince de Bourbon Condé, Princesse Caroline de Hesse Rhinefelds, of 28 June 1741. Perhaps only about twenty examples of this group exist and where their provenance is known it leads back to a small royal coterie.
[i] British Museum 1931 5 – 13, Manners 2011, p. 3, fig 3.
[ii] Whitehead 2003, p. 44.
Condition:
Wear to gilding in well of the saucer
Provenance:
References:
Manners 2011
Errol Manners, ‘Gold Decoration on French, German, and Oriental Porcelain in the Early Eighteenth Century’, Journal of the French Porcelain Society, vol. IV, 2011
Whitehead 2003
John Whitehead, ‘The Posthumous Inventory of the Regent’, The French Porcelain Society Journal, I, (2003), 11 – 45
Nelson and Impey 1994
Christina Nelson and Oliver Impey, Oriental Art and French Patronage: The Foundation of the Bourbon-Conde Ceramics Collection, The International Ceramic Fair and Seminar Handbook 1994
Literature:
Manners 2024
E & H Manners , ‘Decorators of Ceramics and Glass’, 2024, no. 51
