A PAINTED ENAMELS ON COPPER RUBY-BACK DISH

China, Qing dynasty, second quarter of the 18th century

Circular section with a wide ring base, the upper surface with a fine decoration in polychrome enamels with an elegant lady sitting on a low table and two children amidst vases, books, a wood stand, flowers and other objects, the rim with reserves with flowers alternating with stylized corollas on a geometric ground, the back of the wall and the rim with a ruby ​​ground, to the center of the base a pumpkin among leaves and flowers.

3 x 20,5 cm

Provenance: Italian private collection.

This dish exemplifies a type of enameled copper that is a direct derivation of similar porcelains made in the Yongzheng period, with a decoration that in turn derives from paintings with a similar subject of the same period.The version in enameled metal was produced in different sizes and is always characterized by a very high pictorial quality.Similar dishes can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (L.E. Mengoni, Adapting to foreign demani. Chinese enameled copperwares for the Thai market, in A. Habu and D.F. Rooney, ed., Royal porcelain from Siam. Unpacking the Ring Collection, Oslo 2013, pp. 107-124: p. 108, figs. 5.2-5.3); see also the comparable piece in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (M. Gillingham, Chinese Painted Enamels, exhibition catalogue, Oxford 1978, p. 42, n. 44); two similar dishes are also illustrated in J. Welsh, China of All Colors. Painted Enamels on Copper, London 2015, pp. 56-61, nn. 1-2).