Lot 399: a fine large famille rose 'hunting' punchbowl

Circa 1765 The exterior finely enamelled with a continuous scene depicting the meet, the departure, the chase and the kill in a wooded landscape, the interior with a galloping equestrian below a spearhead border around the rim and repeated around the foot, shallow rim chip restored 151/2 in. (39.5 cm.) diam. NOTES The design copies a series of four engravings after James Seymour (1702-52) entitled 'Going out in the Morning', 'Brushing into Cover', 'In Full Chase' and 'The Death of the Fox', the first three probably copying engravings by Pierre Charles Canot (1710-77) and the fourth by Anthony Walker (1726-65). This bowl shows the skill of Chinese artists in using designs taken from European engravings and copying them onto porcelain; here trees have been used as a dividing line between the separate scenes to form a continuous view of the hunt. An almost identical bowl from the Mottahedeh Collection is illustrated by D. Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, 1978, vol.I, pp.281-3, together with the four engravings from which the design is taken. Another very similar bowl, one centimetre larger, was exhibited A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai & Hong Kong, London, 1997, p.118, catalogue no.144. The single horse and rider in the interior of the present lot, is also in the interior of both the above-mentioned bowls.