A RARE AND LARGE ENAMELED AND GILT ARMORIAL BOTTLE VASE FOR THE DUTCH FAMILY DE HEERE Qianlong period, circa 1749-1763 The slender vase with oviform body and tall flaring neck, standing on a spreading foot, boldly enameled principally in iron-red, green and extensive gilding with a large simple coat-of-arms on one side on an entirely plain ground incised horizontally with three underglaze ribbed bands. 16in (41cm) high Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1749-1763年 釉上彩描金荷蘭De Heere家族盾徽高足長頸瓶 Published Cohen & Cohen, Hit & Myth, Antwerp, 2014-B, pp. 122-123, no. 70 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Hit & Myth》，安特衛普，2014年-B，頁122-123，圖版編號70 In 1865, the arms on this service were wrongly attributed to the Nijssem family and then by the early 20th century they were called 'de Heere van der Holy', as these arms were carried in the early 19th Century by Pieter Jansz. de Heere van der Holy (1768-1815) who acquired the manor of Vlaardingen in 1802. He was distantly related to the de Heere family but lived too late to have ordered this service. The arms are of de Heere of Middelburg, Goes and Dordrecht an old family of this region. One early ancestor was the 16th century painter Lucas de Heere (1534-84) who worked in England and possibly trained Marcus de Gheerhaerts the Younger and Robert Peake the Elder. Another with more relevant VOC credentials was Gerrit de Heere, Governor of Ceylon for the VOC in 1697; and other family members were involved in the VOC in Asia and South Africa in the early 18th century. These arms are first recorded accollée for Jan de Heere and his (unidentified) wife in 1704. They are first recorded as the impaled form (seen on this vessel) on a seal in Middleburg in 1735 as belonging to Johan de Heere, probably the son of Jan. He was married in about 1730 to Maria Eversdijk and died before 1749, leaving a son Huijbert and a daughter Susanna. Huijbert Johan de Heere (1731-1777) is almost certainly the man who ordered this service. He left Holland in 1749, as a junior merchant for the VOC on the East Indiaman Gustaaf Willem, arriving in Batavia. By 1751 he was a supercargo at Mocha and resident of Gamron, Persia. In 1752 he moved to Bantam, Java, and then from 1754 to 1763 he was in Palembang (Sumatra), where in 1758 he married Jacoba Frederica Nemegheer (1733-1798). He returned to Goes (Holland) in 1763 with three young sons Jan, Pieter and Willem on the East Indiaman Nieuwland, probably bringing these porcelains with him. This is a very unusual shape for a vase, with no other example recorded in Chinese export porcelain. The form is probably not of Chinese origin and most probably follows a Dutch 17th century metal or glass vessel or flask. The three groups of rings incised into the biscuit body at the waist, shoulder and neck are very suggestive of decorative bands on metal vessels. This single service is known to have included a range of rare shapes, including three covered tankards and an elongated teapot. The dramatic design, with the complete absence of any enameled border or other embellishment, is very rare for Chinese armorial porcelains as these were all individual private-commission services often ordered by newly successful metropolitan families (especially in London) whose financial success encouraged flamboyant decoration to flaunt the family arms to friends and competitors. The style is reminiscent of some early Dutch Delft armorial pieces and is probably inspired by them. The lack of other decoration also makes the dating of this service difficult. A similar dinner service, and a tea service, both with this minimalist stye of supporting decoration are recorded; the shapes of the tureens in the dinner service suggest a date of about 1760, but the teapot in the tea service is of earlier type. References: Jörg, 1997, no. 366, p. 310, a bowl; Jörg, 1989, no. 94, p. 240, a smaller plate; Kroes, 2007, no. 424, p. 501, for more examples from this service and information about the original order to China; and ibid., no. 425, a plate, dated about 1735-40 with same arms but very different border decoration; and Litzenburg, 2003, no. 102, p. 114, a large dish.