Qianlong period circa 1740
European Market
Diameter: 8¼ inches; 21cm
from the Golden Gate Collection,  GG1114

Priced in US dollars  
$6,500
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A Chinese export porcelain saucer dish decorated all over the surface in famille rose with a scene of European figures in a garden.

This finely painted dish is unusual in having no decorative borders, with the scene filling the whole surface of the dish, more in Chinese taste. It is possible that this was intended for a Chinese consumer who wanted a Western design.

The subject is Le Printemps, taken from an engraving by Nicolas de Larmessin IV (1684-1755) after a painting by Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) from a set of the Four Seasons.  A teaservice with this design but without the blue sky is also recorded. Another grisaille export teaservice uses the image of Autumn from this series.

Several different Larmessin prints after Lancret are known on export porcelain: two from the Larmessin suite illustrating the Contes et Nouvelles of La Fontaine; L’Adolescence and Le Vieillesse from the Four Ages of Man (the paintings are in the National Gallery, London); and  The Loves of the Groves, (also engraved by Andrew Miller) is known on a punchbowl and in a simpified form on a teaservice (see below).

References: Sapage 1992, No 36, a teapot with this design; Antunes et al 2000, No 30, a teacaddy; Hervouët & Bruneau 1986, No 7.65, a similar saucer.