Fonthill Heirlooms collection, Pair of enamel bowls casted with round body raised from slightly spreading concaved foot base. The exterior delicately hand painted with enamel of four centralized "FuLuShou " characters medallions, surrounded with colorful rococo night lotus bloom, with its foliate, between band of gilt jewels under rim and interlocking lappets on foot; all reserved against cooper-red ground. The interior showing the centralized longevity "Shou' character over turquoise-blue ground. The underbase remain plain white.

Dimension (each): 3-1/2"H x 7-1/8"Diam.

PROVENANCE:
Alfred MorrisonThe Fonthill HeirloomsThe Fonthill Heirlooms remains one of the most facinating groups of Imperial Qing porcelain and works of art formed by a European in the 19th Century. It was originally collected by Alfred Morrison, the London-based Member of Parliament, who was an active purchaser during the last decades of the 19th Century, when Chinese and Japanese art were both culturally very much at the forefront of aesthetic tastes as pioneered by artistic taste-formers like James Whistler and Oscar Wilde, and also available in rather larger quantities than previously. The Fonthill Heirlooms became particularly well-known because Alfred Morrison was apparently able to buy a substantial quantity of Chinese art from Lord Loch of Drylaw. Before ennoblement, Lord Loch had been an aide-de-camp of Lord Elgin, British Minister Plenipotentiary in charge of the Western military campaign in China which culminated in the sacking of the Summer Palace in 1860. It appears that Mr Morrison bought, still packed in the original campaign chests, the mementoes which Lord Loch had brought back from Beijing. However, it is unclear how much of the Fonthill Heirlooms formed part of this purchase traceable directly back to the sacking, and how much was subsequently acquired by Mr Morrison from London antique dealers emerging into leading taste creators around the new antique dealing areas of Belgravia, Mayfair and Bond Street.

EXCELLENT

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