Blue and White Sauce Tureen and Cover, Qianlong (1735-95)

Ref: J843

Chinese blue and white sauce tureen and cover, Qianlong (1735-95), the body and cover painted with a river landscape with pagodas and a fenced rocky garden in the foreground, the sides with applied boar's head handles, the cover with broad band of floral scroll ground and large stylised ruyi-heads, surmounted by a knop in the form of a gnarled branch.

Dimensions:

Width of tureen: 19.5cm. (7 3/4in.)

Notes:

Made specifically for export to the west, this tureen is an example of the blue and white tableware shipped by state-operated and private companies from China. It would have originally been part of a dinner service; though these tableware sets were shipped in bulk, they remained incredibly expensive well into the 19th century. One English gentleman recorded buying a 'compleat table service of Nankeen china' in 1771 for the sum of £25.5s - more than £2000 in today's money, and representing almost a year's full wages for a skilled tradesman of the time.