An iron-red rococo soup tureen, cover and stand, early 19th century

Of shell form with fluted body, brightly enamelled with feather-forms extending from the scrolling handles, surmounted by a pinecone finial, the underside with grisaille six-character cyclical date mark probably for 1808. 14¾ in. (37.4 cm.) long, the stand (3) - Estimate: $10,000-15,000

Provenance : The Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Mottahedeh Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 9 October 2000, lot 350

Literature: Howard and Ayers, op. cit., p. 555, pl. 573

Exhibited : Virginia Museum, 1981-82

Notes: It is incredibly rare for an export ware to bear a cyclical date mark as foreigners were not to set eyes on Chinese characters by mandate of the Kangxi emperor. This rococo form was particuarly popular in the 1770s, and examples were made for King Dom Pedro III and his wife Queen Dona Maria I of Portugal as well as Joaquim Inácio da Cruz Sobral of the Portuguese Royal Household. See N. de Castro, Chinese Porcelain and the Heraldry of the Empire, Portugal, 1988, pp. 134 and 137. The tureen made for King Dom Pedro III is also illustrated by Beurdeley, op. cit., on both p. 71 and the back cover. Another example can also be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Helena Woolworth McCann Collection. For examples of smaller sauce tureens of this form, see The Hodroff Collection, Christie's, New York, 24 January 2007, lot 177; The Benjamin F. Edwards III Collection, Christie's, New York, 22 January 2002, lot 166; and Beurdeley, op. cit., p. 176, cat. 119.

Christie's. The Hodroff Collection, Part II Chinese Export Porcelain. From The Collection Of Leo & Doris Hodroff. 23 January 2008. 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York