PERIOD: XVIIIeme
CHINESE EXPORT TEACUP AND SAUCER CIRCA 1775-85 each painted with a gallant standing beside a rococo table set with a bowl of fruit, and offering another bowl of fruit to his seated sweetheart while her companion looks on, the rim with purple and green floral sprigs alternating with rose sprigs issuing from a border of rococo scrolls. The saucer with minor chips and a small hair crack. PROVENANCE The Art Exchange, New York CATALOGUE NOTE The print from which the scene was copied has not been identified; however, it can be discerned through small details that the Chinese painter, although decidedly advanced in his depiction of European figures, was quite unfamiliar not only with some of the decorative elements in a European-style room, but how to render them in perspective. A coffee cup with this decoration is illustrated by Hyde, Silva and Malta, p. 63, pl. XV (top, right), where the subject is entitled 'The Offering.' The coffee pot from this service is illustrated by Hervouët and Bruneau, p. 144, no. 7.10, and was sold at Sotheby's in Monte Carlo on June 19, 1988, lot 1542. Another teacup and saucer
PRIX: $2000
