A VERY RARE PAIR OF LARGE ENAMELED AND ANHUA ARMORIAL CIRCULAR MONTEITHS FOR THE PORTUGUESE MARKET Qianlong period, circa 1735 Each deep circular bowl molded at the rim with eight crisply indented apertures, each indent to hold the stem of one inverted wine glass for chilling in ice piled into the interior, the body undecorated except for the large coat of arms boldly enameled in colors and reserved on an elaborate incised anhua (secret decoration) ground depicting dense lotus scrolls and other flowers subtly visible all around the exterior. 12in (30cm) high (2). Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1735年 珍稀大件為葡萄牙市場製粉彩描金盾徽紋鋸齒口酒碗一對 Provenance: Florentina (Cuqui) Pierro Viña Collection, Plaza de Marqués Salamanca Published Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 98-100, no. 42 來源： Florentina (Cuqui) Pierro Viña舊藏，馬德里薩拉曼卡廣場 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁98-100，圖版編號42 The porcelain body has been carefully and elaborately incised into the unglazed, leather-hard biscuit body with anhua decoration of lotus and other flowers, before being dipped in liquid glaze and fired 'in the white'. As with all enameled armorial porcelain, the coat of arms is painted over the glaze and requires a second firing in a 'muffle' kiln at a much lower temperature, thereby materially increasing the manufacturing cost for the European who has sent to China his bookplate or drawing of his family coat of arms. The arms are those of Cosme Damião Pinto Pereira, Fidalgo of the Royal Household, Lord of the Quinta do Vale dos Moinhos and Quinta das Conchas in Lumiar, Lisbon. He was Captain-General and Governor of Macao for two periods, 1733-1735 and 1743-1747. The quartered arms are Pereira, Pinto, Guedes and Pimentel. The cross in the Pereira arms commemorates Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira (1360-1431). The Governor of Macao ordered several Chinese export porcelain services from his relatively convenient local supplier of Chinese porcelain, including some later orders which are enameled with sprays of flowers. These monteiths are from the family's earliest and rarest service. These minimalist yet elegantly decorated vessels follow an original European silver shape, as is readily visible from the sharp angles and unlikely projections which no true potter would regard as natural for the ceramic medium. Silver monteiths were generally deep circular or oval bowls with concave notches in the rims; a few, as in these rarer examples, were created with what appears to be a collar of raised dividers around the rim, which are European in origin but seem to echo the cloud-collar motifs often found in Chinese art. Originally of silver, monteiths were later made in glazed earthenware, porcelain and glass. In France they were called a seau à verre, seau crenelé, verrière and rafraîchissoir. The name is said to derive from a Scotsman named Monteith who, at Oxford, wore a cloak or coat scalloped at the bottom in this manner according to Savage and Newman 1985, p. 196. References: Castro, 1988, pp. 78-79, for details of this service, and p. 67, a monteith with the same crenelation but different body shape bearing the royal arms of Portugal; and compare with, for a single example of this shape and size with anhua decoration, but without any armorial bearings and decorated in opaque enamels with flowers and the '100-antiques' pattern, in the Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace, London.