Small Chinese porcelain ewer. Qianlong, 18th century, circa 1755-60. Moulded cylindrical shape, resting on a pedestal, with a branch-shaped handle, decorated with the enamels of the Rose Family, under the spout with a coat of arms surmounted by a helmet and above a phylactery inscribed
LEGRAND, red iron frieze of lotus flowers under the bowl, frieze of palms and shells on the pedestal, gold fillet on the edges, small sparkle at the spout, some wear and tear.
H: 14 cm
Provenance: The coat of arms is that of the family Le Grand, from the Netherlands.
About four households were named Le Grand in Amsterdam around 1742 and six people with this name are mentioned in the East India frame. The most likely patron of this armorial service was most likely Johannes Le Grand (born around 1700). A merchant and son of an accountant who had worked in West Africa (in Guinea), he married
Cornelia Margaretha Debbits and had two sons. He could have ordered this service thanks to his nephew Albertus Domburg (son of his sister), a merchant and notary in Batavia in the 1750s, who ordered an armoured service with a similar decoration.
For an illustration of a saucer from this service, see by Dr
Jochem Kroes, Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, The
Hague, 2007, p. 327, n.244.