Kakiemon beaker Chantilly porcelain ca. 1730 - 1735

Manufacture de CHANTILLY Circa 1730 - 1735

Flared goblet on a wide pedestal in soft paste with polychrome Kakiemon decoration of quails and a flowering branch. Marked on the reverse with a red hunting horn. It has been fitted with a gilt brass frame decorated with two handles in the form of foliage. One of the best-known motifs on Kakiemon porcelain depicts one or two small birds on the ground surrounded by plants - millet, chrysanthemums or prunus. These birds are quails (in Japanese ‘UZURA’). Symbolically associated with autumn, they are sometimes represented with the moon in the sky. It seems that this motif was created in the middle of the 17th century; it is a simplified version of productions by painters from TOSA, which was the official art school of the Imperial Court in Kyoto. In the middle of the 17th century, under the direction of Tosa Mitsuoki, this production entitled ‘painted birds and flowers’ included naturalistic details derived from the court painters of the 12th century Chinese Song dynasty. In Chantilly, these quails were mistaken for partridges. This quail decoration is also found in the following European porcelain manufactures: Meissen, Bow, Chelsea and Worcester. These motifs can also be found on Delft and Rouen earthenware.
Height: 8 cm.