Chinese Export Famille Rose Continental Armorial Marriage Platter
Qianlong Period
Circa 1760

This handsome rectangular serving dish with canted corners is finely decorated in the famille rose palette, with an elaborate marriage coat of arms at the center. The central well is framed by a classic gilt and iron-red spearhead border, and the wide rim is adorned with four groupings of floral sprays at the corners, interspersed with scattered blossoms. The achievement is accolle - two shields placed side by side - commemorating the union of two armigerous families. The dexter shield (to the viewer's left) bears a fox rampant in iron-red upon an azure field with a green base; the sinister (to the viewer's right) shows a similar fox upon an azure field, set on a lozenge, the form traditionally used for a woman's arms, and ensigned with a coronet marking the wife's patrician or titled rank. The whole is surmounted by two facing closed-visored helmets, each crested with a rampant fox, a radiant sunburst rising between them.

On a plate stand atop a sideboard, console or bookcase, or hung with a discreet plate hanger, the platter brings heraldic color and a sense of history to a dining room, library or entrance hall, and sits naturally among other Chinese export porcelain.

Dimensions
Length: 13 inches (33 cm)
Width: 93/4 inches (24.8 cm)
Depth: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good antique condition, with a slight rub to the gilding on one of the shields.

References
Jochem Kroes, Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market: Chinese Porcelain with Coats of Arms of Dutch Families (The Hague: Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie; Zwolle: Waanders, 2007), the standard reference for the type.

For Dutch alliance arms set side by side on a service of the period, compare the plates made for Thymon van Schoonhoven (1710-1766) and Elisabeth Geraerds (1720-1751), married in 1739, Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, inv. E 26.1 and E 26.2 (Kroes, no. 218).

Historical Context
The composition of this achievement points to the Continental European heraldic tradition, most probably Dutch. Where British practice marshals a marriage on a single shield, by impalement, the use of two separate shields placed side by side (accolle), each with its own helmet and crest, is characteristic of Dutch and other Continental armory. The fox borne on both shields is almost certainly a canting device, a visual pun on a surname meaning "fox," such as the Dutch Vos or De Vos, and the marriage may have joined two fox-named families or two branches of one; the particular family has not yet been identified.

To commission a custom service from the kilns of Jingdezhen, the heraldry added at Canton from a drawing sent out from Europe, was a costly and deliberate way for a wealthy merchant or patrician family to celebrate and perpetuate a dynastic marriage at the height of the eighteenth-century China trade. Only some five hundred Dutch armorial services are known today.

(Ref: NY11052-lmrx)


Condition:
Alterations: Original Condition Unaltered
Imperfections: Some Imperfections
Condition Notes: good condition

Origin:
China

Materials & Techniques:
Porcelain

Details:
What type of item is it? Vintage / Antique / Used
Country of Origin: China

Original Condition Unaltered; Some Imperfections; good condition