Getty Museum

Bowl on Stand

Date

stand late 17th century; bowl about 1720; mount about 1740

Medium

Porcelain and gilt bronze mounts

Culture

Japanese and Chinese (Kangxi) and German?

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

The bowl was originally used for food and would have had a shallow domed lid to keep the contents warm. Its interior is painted with an unidentified coat of arms, possibly of a Dutch or English family. The vessel, which once formed part of a larger dinner service, would have been ordered by a European family through the Dutch, French, or English East India Company, a fairly common practice in the 1700s. French merchants, known as *marchands-merciers*, would have purchased the bowl and stand separately and then directed a bronze worker to mount the two together. In doing so, he indiscriminately united a Japanese stand and a bowl from China. The French owner probably would not have recognized the Chinese or Japanese identity of the vessels, merely viewing them as attractive, exotic decorations.

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