TWO SANCAI-GLAZED ZOOMORPHIC VESSELS 18th/19th century The first unusually modelled as a yellow crayfish perched on an upright green and aubergine rocky plinth, the spout and looped handle under mottled green glaze, 20cm (8in) high; and an amusing model of a pale-brown-glazed monkey with incised fur marking perched astride a large peach with a curling stalk forming the spout, his head with an aperture for water, 17cm (6 3/4in) high. (2). Footnotes: 十八/十九世紀 素三彩金猴水注及素三彩仿生蝦形水注 兩件 Provenance: Dr Carlo Maria Franzero (1892-1986) (The crayfish vessel) Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 14 November 2008 A European private collection Dr Carlo Maria Franzero (1892-1986), an Italian who visited China in 1921-1922 and settled in England for around 50 years, was a noted Chinese porcelain collector, a journalist, and an author of a vast range of historical biographies. A related sancai-glazed biscuit ewer shaped as a crayfish, Kangxi, was amongst the group of Oriental ceramics gifted to the Dresden Court by Ferdinand de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1690: this was entered in the 1694 inventory of the Kunstkammer of the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden; see U.Pietsch, A.Loesch and E.Ströber, China Japan Meissen, The Dresden Porcelain Collection, Dresden, 2007, p.13. Similarly-shaped ewers were made since at least the late Ming dynasty, both for use in the domestic Chinese market and for export to Southeast Asia where they were used as wine containers during the performance of religious rituals. See, for example, a related sancai crayfish ewer, Ming dynasty, in the British Museum, London, (acc.no.1931,0717.1). See also a related sancai-glazed jug in the form of a fish, Kangxi, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc.no.1997-1855). See a related blue-glazed 'monkey' wine pot, Kangxi, illustrated by W.R.Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem, 1991, pp.80-81, no.31. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing