About the Work

The four designs depicted on this five-piece garniture are thought to derive from costume prints by three brothers of the Parisian Bonnart family: Robert (1652–c.1729), Nicolas (1637–1718), and Henry (1642–1711). These highly popular fashion engravings and portraits, which cannot always be confidently attributed to a specific brother, were published in Paris between 1685 and 1700. Although the source of the designs is clearly French, it remains uncertain whether the porcelain was intended specifically for the French market, as Parisian fashion was widely emulated across Europe during this period. The hairstyle shown is known as à la mode Fontanges, named after one of King Louis XIV’s mistresses.

The prints represented appear to combine imagery from three different print series. Two designs derive from The Three Graces by Robert and Nicolas Bonnart, depicting Thalia and Euphrosyne. The image of a reclining lady holding a blossoming branch to her nose comes from The Five Senses by Henry Bonnart and represents Smell. The fourth scene, showing a lady on a swing, is probably taken from The Elements by Henry Bonnart and symbolises Air.

The remaining decorative elements are characteristic of Kangxi-period blue-and-white wares. A closely related three-piece garniture, comprising two beaker vases and a baluster jar, was formerly in the collection of Augustus the Strong and is now in the Zwinger Museum in Dresden. Comparable covered jars are held in the collections of the De Sypesteyn Museum in Loosdrecht, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Hodroff Collection. Another example was formerly in the collection of Mildred and Rafi Mottahedeh, while a further covered jar overdecorated with reddish-brown enamel is preserved in the Swedish Royal Collection.

Show moreless

Literature

S. T. Yeo and Jean Martin, Chinese Blue & White Ceramics, exhibition catalogue, The Southeast Asian Ceramics Society and The National Museum Singapore, Singapore, 1978, no. 298, pl. 161.