Ref: W476
Archive item - not for sale
Massive Chinese Mandarin punch bowl, Qianlong (1736-95), finely decorated with four main cartouches containing scenes of a group of Chinese gentlemen making merry beside the banks of a river, divided by small vignettes of a bird sitting upon a blossom branch, with rich scrolling, flowers, feathers and winged insects in the mandarin style reserved on a red ground diapered with gilt, all below a key-fret band to the rim, the footrim with golden bamboo and small floral band, the interior with a central medallion containing a further scene of three gentlemen conversing in a pagoda garden, surrounded by alternating vignettes of birds and lotus, richly embellished with feathers and flower heads, the interior rim with scrolling sections of diaper patterns, with further bird and flower cartouches, floral swags and butterflies.
Dimensions:
Diameter: 41cm., height: 16.3cm.
Notes:
Punch bowls were popular items for export to England in particular, where punch, made from gin, citrus fruit and imported spices, was drunk by the middle and upper-classes of the eighteenth century. By the 1760s, the dense ornamentation, bold colour palette and ornate gilding of the so-called ‘mandarin’ style had become very popular. The mandarin style consequently became a key visual source for European ceramic manufacturers.
