A pair of painted enamel export sconces for the European market, China, Qianlong period, circa 1738-1742. Photo courtesy Cohen & Cohen.

Repoussé moulded with brightly coloured flowers, European metal sconces and mirrors. Height 50.5 cm

The Imperial enamelling workshop in Canton produced a range of such sconces, mainly for the Scandinavian market, including several sets for the Danish Royal palaces. This particular design is unrecorded but the quality and exuberant style suggest that they may have been part of such a set, ordered between 1738 and 1742. There are also elements shared with sconces known to have been in the Royal palace such the birds at the top of the design. Two orders, one for 16 arrived in Copenhagen in 1740 and the other for 12 ordered in 1741, both possibly by supercargo Christen Lintrup who was in Canton in 1738 and 1741.

Provenance: Collection Abreu Burmester

Literature: T. Clemmensen, M.B. Mackeprang, Discussion of Lintrup’s voyages, 1980, pp148-58; Ole Krog, Villumsen et al, four similar sconces from Christianborg Palace, 2006, pp. 192-195, figs16-19; pp.352-355; p.621, cat 203; p.262, cat 204, two further sconces now at Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod; Tatiana E.Arapova, 1988, nos 15 & 16, plates 9 & 10, two further sconces; Du Tage à la mer de Chine: Une épopée portugaise, p181, no. 84 and p.174.

Cohen & Cohen (stand 246) at TEFAF 2014. 14-23 march 2014 - http://www.tefaf.com/