A CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE EUROPEAN SUBJECT DISH.

Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period.

Painted to the centre with an elegant European couple, the man playing a flute, the lady feeding a large parrot perched on a ring suspended from the rocaille scrolls surrounding the scene, the rim with four panels of landscape in pink enamels against a bianco-sopra-bianco floral ground, 23cm diameter.

清乾隆 粉彩繪外國人像圖紋折沿碟

For similar plates see Hervouët and Y. Brunneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes a Décor Occidental, 1986, p 185. It has been suggested that the central scene, replete with erotic subtext, may derive from elements of designs for six Beauvais ‘grotesques’ tapestries by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636 – 1699), see Cohen & Cohen, Tyger, Tyger, 2016, cat no 57, p 128-9.