The ewer shaped like a nautilus shell, richly enamelled in fine famille rose palette with two large pendant ruyi heads at the rim piercing elaborate bands of scrolling floral meanders alternating with smaller scroll bands, the domed foot with a radiating lotus petal collar. The basin resembling a large, deeply fluted scallop shell resting on three conical feet, decorated with a large flower strewn yellow‑ground ruyi head peircing the bold elongated barbed panels of full blown peony, chrysanthemum, lotus and other flowers amidst leaves and buds, below a double scroll border at the rim, the exterior with single ruyi head piercing pastel coloured floral scroll panels.
Literature
Cf. Ewer and basin exhibited in New York, China Institute, Chinese Painted Enamels, cat. 8, from Lloyd Hyde's own collection and dated to the reign of Yongzheng (1723-1735), which are described as copied form seventeenth century Portuguese silver
Cf. Howard and Ayers, China for the West, op. cit., pl. 125, for an example of this shape in porcelain, dated 1720-1725, in the Mottahedeh collection.
