A very finely painted Chinese Qing dynasty Qianlong period export porcelain centerpiece or punch bowl, circa 1780-1790, decorated in famille rose (fencai) enamels, the exterior painted with two large, alternating with two smaller, cartouche reserves depicting genre scenes of an affluent southern Mandarin family at leisure in their garden pavilion and terraces, each reserve framed in an elaborate scrolling foliate border, the larger two supported by stylized dragons in gold and from which issue green artemisia leaves, each reserve separated by a textile pattern ground of Bishamon kikko in iron red in rust red, the interior painted with a frieze of elaborate brocades and floral drops headed by a beaded border under a rim with traces of gilding, the center featuring an exact repeat of the border & frieze enclosing a figural vignette of a boy with his parents, the father with his arm over the mother’s shoulder, a touchingly human detail rarely seen in Chinese export porcelain painting. Old staple repair and restoration of long crack extending from the rim, through the foot ring and across the base, with associated minor rim damage.

SKU: 1907