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Ewer .

Very elegantly  " pear-shaped", with large handle and spout .  Painted in excellent cobalt-underglaze blue: on both sides a similar scene with a mandarin accompanied by his servant ; above 2 " tulip" flowers .
The cover in silver  attached to the body .

period :     TRANSITIONAL ,   ca. 1650 .

refer.:   " Chine de Commande ,"  L. Scheurleer   1966 , who reproduces a well-known 
             painting  from J.KALF ( 1685) : " Stilleven"  , n° 40 , with an identical ewer .

           " Chinesisches Porzellan " , Museum Frankfurt /Main (1977) , n° 82 .

This ewer here,with 2 spouts , is an interesting and rare example of a misunderstanding of a foreign order by the Chinese.  Long S-shaped spouts are common on chinese ewers , so it was a natural thing for the potters  to make such a spout on a ewer . The VOC started to order porcelain with western shapes around 1635. However, the Dutch model  provided for this ewer apparently had the small, V-shaped european-style spout on the rim. The chinese potter copied the model faithfully, but, probably not understanding the use of the pinched spout, added his own traditional spout. Only a few comparable pieces are known, as such  " failed" pieces would have been rejected by the dutch merchants .
A  similar ewer is as such  described in  :  "  Chinese Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam " ,  C. Jörg ,  n° 290 .

Ewers like this one,were based on metal models,and may have been used for wine, or for water for washing  hands .

Perfect  condition .Very rare model,  (  for its  2 spouts ) .