18th Century Chinese Export Porcelain Mandarin Famille Rose Bowl

Chinese Export Mandarin Famille Rose Punch Bowl
Qianlong Period, Circa 1780–1785

A large and richly decorated Chinese Export punch bowl, deep and circular on a short spreading foot, finely painted in the famille rose “Mandarin” palette of rose-pink, puce, iron-red, green, and aubergine with gilt highlights throughout. The exterior carries two generous figural reserves — mandarins, elegant ladies, and children gathered on garden terraces and balustraded riverside settings — set against a dense iron-red and sepia trellis-diaper ground scattered with peony sprays. Inside, a lavish rococo border of puce scale-grounds, iron-red strapwork, and gilt-edged cartouches frames en grisaille landscape vignettes and famille rose flowerheads, with a matching terrace scene in the well and gilt-dressed rims. A wonderfully decorative piece, equally at home as a centerpiece on a dining table, a console, or a shelf of blue-and-white and export porcelain.

Dimensions
Diameter: 11¼ inches (28.6 cm)
Height: 5 inches (12.7 cm)

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good. No repairs or issues.

Historical Context
The “Mandarin” pattern takes its name from its panels of robed court figures — mandarins, their families, and attendants — set within garden and landscape scenes. Painted at Canton in the dense famille rose palette popular in the late eighteenth century, such wares paired finely enameled figural reserves with elaborate rococo borders, answering Western taste for European Baroque ornament rendered in a Chinese idiom. Punch bowls of this size were among the most prized objects of the China trade, made for the dining and entertaining of prosperous European and American households, and survive today as accomplished examples of the Qianlong export workshops at their height.

(Ref: NY11187-nrkm)
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