£1,200
A large Canton enamel vase, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795): the ovoid body finely painted with four horsemen riding in a rocky landscape, amid leafy trees and Western-style buildings, joined by farmers with their horses on the other side of the mountain, all beneath a light blue sky with floating clouds, set with a waisted neck detailed with pendent plantain leaves and a band of stylised florets and foliage on a yellow ground, supported on a similarly decorated splayed foot the quality of the enamelled scene suggests that it was made by experienced Chinese artists possibly trained in the Palace Workshop by the Jesuit missionaries who introduced the technique of enamelling on metal to the court. The presence of four men equipped with light weaponry on horses and the stately manor in the background suggests that the scene derives from European hunting scenes made popular by the English painter James Seymour (1702-52) and often depicted on export porcelain. This representation of the theme is unusual in that it has been placed within a Chinese-style landscape, as seen in the vast and irregular forms of the rocky hills. [ A similar example has been sold: Lot 2718 Sold for 1,460,000 HKD at Sotheby's 2010]
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