CHINESE EXPORT EUROPEAN MARKET PORCELAIN MINIATURE TEAPOT & COVER Yongzheng / Early Qianlong, c1730-40
Of globular form with loop handle, painted on one side with a view of a pavilion in a landscape, and the other with a willow tree and distant mountain, the top of the spout with a cross device; both the spout and handle with flower stem borders, the cover with conical knop and similar views
Provenance: bearing a paper label verso, and with collection numbers 5023.1A and 5023.1B
Literature: See Simon Spero, The Simpson Collection of Eighteenth Century English Blue and White Miniature Porcelain, p. 7, Illustration no. 1, where he discusses the popularity of collecting miniature wares, particularly among the gentleman collectors in Holland who bought such teapots for decorative purposes or for use in a doll house. He also discusses other possible uses for the form and how it became the prototype for English miniature teapots from the early 1750's :
"The globular form .... of this teapot would have served as the model for the first miniature English teapots.."
Note the gentle curve of the spout, the curved form being that of choice of English teapots,
as opposed to the straight spout of most Chinese teapots.
2.63” High