Of square form, horizontal shoulders, a moulded cylindrical neck opening up to a flattened mouth, exquisitely painted in shades of brilliant underglaze blue on the four rectangular sides with scenes of two elegant ladies, each in differently designed flowing robes and wearing a necklace, their hair finely coiffed and jewelled, standing on either side of a jardiniere which is placed upon a small table, one lady holding in her very dainty hand a small flower, the other holding a fan in one hand, the other hand outstretched with her long fingers gently pointing forward, each scene with slight variations; below, boldly painted flowering plants issuing from stylised rock work, above and in the background a terrace beyond which grows large flowering branches and stylised rockwork, the scenes bordered by double blue lines following the edges of the rectangular sides and finishing in each corner with a small, curly shape, around the neck two bands of crackled glaze pattern interspersed with flower heads and meanders and likewise around the mouth a band of triangle work, the flattened horizontal shoulders painted with different flower branches, the base glazed and painted with a monogram in underglaze blue with a small 'V' inside a larger 'H'.
Literature
For an almost identical flask belonging to the collection of Musee national Adrien Dubouch, Limoges Collection Gasnault, don Dubouch, 1881, ADL 486, see 'L'Odysse de la Porcelaine Chinoise', Collections du Museo National de Ceramique, Sevres et du Musee National Adrien Dubouche, Limoges, published by Editions de la Reunion des musees nationaux, Paris, 2003, p. 142, plate 79, where they discuss how this type of flask were probably made for the Dutch market and how this particular monogram found also on our flask was probably ordered for the General Governor of the V.O.C., Pieter Van Hoorn, who was stationed in Batavia between 1684 and 1691 and sent to address the Emperor Kangxi.
The above conclusion probably based on Japanese Arita flasks, known to have been made for the Governor General(whose name was actually Joan van Hoorn) ( and bearing the same monogram).
