Garden seat c.1800-17
Porcelain decorated in famille rose enamels and gilt | 48.5 x 36.0 x 36.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 58977
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The garden seat is drum-shaped and octagonal, with rounded sides, flat top and flat ring foot, two opposite sides being pierced with a single cash emblem. The sides are moulded with rows of studs above and below, picked out in gilt. Painted round the body on a lavender blue ground is a design of eight variously coloured dragons, ascending or descending among clouds above a sea of white topped green waves. Above is a broad band of formalised dragon key-fret in white and blue, reserved on a yellow ground. The top is painted with clouds.
Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume II.
Provenance
Presented to George IV by Captain Sotheby, 1819.
One of those listed at Carlton House in Jutsham Recs II.83: ‘4 Indian Porcelaine Garden Seats of Octagon form, Lilac Ground & Gold Studs 1 foot 7 i [48.3 cm] high … presented to The Prince Regent by Captain Sotheby June 24th 1819’; and then sent to the Royal Pavilion, Brighton (Jutsham Dels I.328, 6 November 1819): ‘Case No 5 Containing – An Indian Garden Seat of China in Enameled Dragons …Presented by Captn Sotheby’, and again, ‘Case No.3. Containing 3 India China Garden Seats Enameled in Dragons’, also from Captain Sotheby. Their decoration, with the same ‘Lilac Ground’, ‘Dragons’ and blue key-fret border as are found on the accompanying ‘window jars’ (see RCIN 26105), is further confirmation that Captain Sotheby’s gift resulted from a specific commission for the Chinese factories, planned, no doubt, with the Prince Regent’s agreement, for the furnishing of the Pavilion. -
Creator(s)
(nationality)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Porcelain decorated in famille rose enamels and gilt
Measurements
48.5 x 36.0 x 36.0 cm (whole object)
Category
Object type(s)