Description:
Chinese export procelain plate decorated in underglaze blue with four European-style cartouches around the rim, two with an eagle beneath a coronet of sunflower petals, and two with a carp-like fish swimming over weeds; the well decorated with Chinese flowers, scrolling leaves, and fruit; and two floral sprigs on the under-rim. Howard and Ayers illustrate a plate from a polychrome set of essentially the same pattern and perhaps made later, although it is conceivable that both could have been ordered together. From the known provenance of the polychrome set, it would seem to have been ordered for the French market. It has been suggested that the crowned eagle and fish represent King Louis XV and Mme de Pompadour; however, Mme de Pompadour would have hated such a pun on her low-born name "poisson" once in power. Howard and Ayers suggest that "in a convivable society where ladies and gentlemen revelled on a lavish scale, the obvious implication of the eagle with a crown and the fish as ribald patriotism in bad taste could be overlooked. This may be more than speculation, for in 1745, after Madame de Pompadour had been established at Versailles as "maitresse en titre" she collected around her the literary kings of the age - Voltaire for example, was her poet - while her patronage extended to such artists as Boucher and Greuze. Such a policy inevitably brought retaliation and she was lampooned mercilessly by the "poissardes," which led to the ruin of a number of those suspected of complexity. Could one of their more ambitious schemes have included this service?" Condition: Tiny rim chips filled, otherwise perfect.
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