A RARE CHINESE IMARI PRONK 'LE DAME AU PARASOL' WAVY-RIMMED BUTTER COOLER, COVER AND STAND Qianlong period, circa 1740-1780 Painted in the Imari palette on each separate piece with a an elegant lady standing under a parasol held by an attendant, the lady holding out a hand to four separate species of marsh birds walking on the bank before them, the four species mirrored in cartouches at the rim, as are the lady and the 'parasol' attendant, all on a cell ground in shades of iron-red and gilt with a band of composite flower groups dividing them, the reverse of the dish with seven equally-spaced penciled underglaze-blue insects. 9 1/4in (23.5cm) diam Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1737年 珍稀中國伊萬里普龍克《持傘美人》花口蓋碗暨托盤一套 Published Cohen & Cohen, Hit & Myth, Antwerp, 2014-B, p. 77, no. 43 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Hit & Myth》，安特衛普，2014年-B，頁77，圖版編號43 In 1734 the directors of Holland's East Indian Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie: VOC) commissioned Amsterdam artist Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) to create four patterns for Chinese porcelain. Pronk's drawings were sent to VOC headquarters in Batavia and then on to Canton in 1736. Using a 'Chinoiserie' vocabulary Pronk created distinctive scenes and motifs that were then produced by the Chinese workshops in Jingdezhen in a variety of types. However, it has been noted by Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Yale, 2012, p. 150, no. 56, that the shape of this vessel derives from a molded glass model that is not known before 1780. There is no documented evidence of later orders of Pronk designs from China, but Jörg suggests, Pronk Porcelain, Porcelain Designs by Cornelis Pronk, Groninger Museum, 1980, p. 68, no. 24, that it is possible that after the sale of the Pronk drawings from the Aldert Pronk sale of 1772, that there may have been more orders made. The pattern is certainly known from European factories in the later eighteenth century and includes examples from Cozzi (circa 1765), Oude-Amstel (circa 1780), and later in Brameld English pearlware (circa 1810-1820).