The Meng Mystery

Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1821-1850
Height: 5.5 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.61/1.59 cm
Stopper: iron-red, gold and turquoise-blue enamel on porcelain

Provenance:
SB Collection
Robert Hall, March 2011

Published:
Robert Hall and Susan Page 2011, no. 9

 

Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on white porcelain; with a flat lip and recessed flat, oval foot surrounded by a protruding convex, oval foot rim and with raised circular panels on the main sides and raised ovoid ones on the narrow sides; painted on one main-side with Meng Haoran riding his pony, his whip held aloft in his right hand as he looks back over his shoulder, and on the other with his servant climbing into the branches of a blossoming prunus tree, the narrow side panels enamelled in iron-red with a gold frame, the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script Daoguang nian zhi 道光年製 (‘Made in the Daoguang era’), the interior glazed.

Alexander Whittaker