A large Chinese Export blue and white lemon basket with stand, Qing dynasty, Qianlong (1736-95).
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The pierced basket decorated with floral sprigs on the interior below a border, the exterior similarly decorated, the stand modeled as a gnarled tree trunk and with applied flowers, two putti clambering and encircling their arms around the upper part of the trunk. Height 38 cm. Length basket 21 cm.
Fritts.
Provenance
Property of a private Swedish Collection.
Literature
Directly copying a Meissen model produced around 1740, the form was meant to be a table centerpiece set above an oval tray and surrounded by other smaller condiment pots to hold spice and oil, as illustrated in Bredo L. Grandjean, Dansk Ostindisk Porcelæn, Copenhagen, 1965, fig. 56, cat. no. 40. Another example is illustrated in David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, vol. II, London, 1978, p. 566, along with a Meissen example.