D2312. Blue and White Flower Vase

Marked with a numeral 4 in blue

The flattened cartouche-shaped body painted on the front with a garden urn filled with a lush bouquet of flowers and plants on a table and in the backgroud another garden urn with a plant, and on the reverse with flowering branches, shrubbery and a stylized pierced rock, all below large scrollwork, the top issuing five spouts, all with foliate devices, the

sides affixed with blue edged s-scroll handles with scroll devices, and the knopped blue-ground ankle reserved with a scroll band, above the rectangular foot with large ruyi-heads and scroll devices.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 18.5 cm. (7.3 in.)

PROVENANCE
The collection of Edmond Guérin, n°50 (according to the original label);
Possibly Me Baudouin, Paris, 13 June 1938, lot 65

NOTE
Flower vases with fanning rows of spouts were poduced at the Delft potteries from the 1680s to about 1740. Initially, they were designed as simple quintel vases, which were topped by a single row of five spouts arranged in a fan. The heart-shaped and the present cartouche-shaped model with five spouts followed the early quintel vase. The only marked pieces of the heart-shaped model are from De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory, and were produced until the 1730s. This model was probably intended to be seen from one side because of the flat shape. The decorative vase may have been displayed on a mantelpiece, above a door, or on a piece of furniture.

The scenes painted on the body of this kind of vases often depict Chinese scenes mixed with western imagery. The painters often referred to the function of the object in their imagery, namely to display flowers. Therefore, there are many flower vases known that depict plants, flowers, animals and mythological references for example to Flora, the goddess of flowers and spring. The decoration on the present flower vase with a garden urn on a table is however rather uncommon.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
Two vases of this model are illustrated in Van Aken- Fehmers 2007: two blue and white examples and a ‘cashmere’ palette example, all marked LVE for

Lambertus van Eenhoorn, pp. 217-218, nos. 7.12 and 7.13, respectively. The first of these, decorated with a figure of Flora, (no. 7.12) is in the Kunstmuseum, The Hague (inv. no. 1002593), and illustrated in Van Aken-Fehmers 2012, p. 106, pl. 48 (left center); the second (no. 7.13) is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. BK-NM-2574), also illustrated in Hudig 1929, p. 208, ill. 200. Other examples of the same model, a pair of blue and white flower vases, unidentifiably marked is illustrated in Aronson 2015, p. 59, no. 31; a blue and white one marked for Lambertus van Eenhoorn in Aronson 2011, p. 46, no. 27, another one unidentifiably marked in Aronson 2018, pp. 52-53, no. 29 and two others marked for De Dubbelde Schenkkan (The Double Jug) factory in Lavino 2002, p. 105.