A GROUP OF FOUR CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN WARES Kangxi - Jiaqing Period Comprising a dish with lobed sides and a scalloped rim, painted in famille-verte enamels and gilt with a flowering garden at the center and four further blossoming outcrops at the cavetto; a 'botanical' saucer painted in famille-rose enamels with a large iris and anemone blossom at the center, a caterpillar crawling on the latter and a butterfly above, all within an underglaze-blue bracket border and with polychrome 'floral' scroll at the cavetto, the exterior with an iron-red and gilt diaper band; a deep oval basin set on three conical feet, the interior painted with a pair of cranes soaring above a forest of pine and blossoming prunus, the cavetto with flowers of the four seasons under a band of prunus and butterflies, the exterior painted with the flower of the four seasons between raised bands above and below and set with two pairs of 'flowerhead' mock handles; and an oval-section compote supported on a waisted foot and rising to an undulating rim with incurved handles, painted in famille-rose enamels with a composite fruiting and flowering vine at the interior and exterior rims, the exterior with further boughs of fruit and flowers below. 12 1/2in (31.8cm) width of widest (4). Footnotes: Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. Provenance: Basin: Lukannon Antiques, New Brunswick, Canada The design at the center of the 'botanical' saucer is based on illustrations of flora and insects by the German-born naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Merian went to Surinam in 1698 where she studied and collected specimens of flowers and insects, which she published in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705). The caterpillar on the present dish, however, comes from plate 39 in the third volume of Merian's Raupenbuch (Caterpillar Book), which was published posthumously in 1717. The border on the present dish is inspired by designs by the Dutch draughtsman and porcelain designer, Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759). For another famille-rose 'botanical' dish with this motif, see one in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (inv. no. AE 86582), illustrated in William R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics From the Peabody Essex Museum, New Haven, p. 245, cat. no. 120. The collection of the British Museum, London, includes a famille-rose 'botanical' dish of this type (acc. no. Franks.589A), and a version in blue and white (acc. no. Franks.589), both illustrated on the Museum's website. Three famille-rose dishes of this type sold at Christie's, London, 11 May 2004, lots 14-15. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing