DIMENSIONS

Length: 7 ¼ inches

 

PROVENANCE

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 2000

 

CATALOGUE NOTES

Famille verte export sauceboat, likely based upon a European silver form, of circular shape with pinched edges at opposite sides forming the pouring spouts. Two strap handles attach to the lip and mid-section at opposite sides, adjacent to the spouts. The sauceboat rests upon a short pedestal foot and has a slightly recessed underfoot. It is decorated along the exterior rim with trefoil reserves filled with flowers set upon a green salmon roe ground, and along the foot with a petal design in relief in alternating colors. The interior is decorated with a large quatrefoil reserve in the center filled with a phoenix flying alongside a flowering tree, and along the rim with more flower filed trefoil reserves set upon a seeded green ground. These interior trefoil reserves and the central quatrefoil reserve are connected by ornate knotted cords. At the joint where the handles attach to the interior are two decorative painted monster heads with ring handles in their mouths (as found on archaic bronzes). The underfoot is glazed white.