Two Chinese blue and white 'Pronk' dishes. Circa 1738

A Chinese blue and white 'Pronk' plate. Circa 1738

Decorated after a design by the Dutch draughtsman Cornelis Pronk, with a scene of three figures seated on a terrace beside a Ming dish placed on a low table in the foreground, a fourth figure standing behind them, a peacock perched on the terrace balustrade and a parrot perched in an exotic flowering tree above them to the top, surrounded on the sides by oval cartouches of fish divided by ducks, three very small rim restorations. 23 cm. diam. Est. €2,000 - €2,500

A Chinese blue and white 'Pronk' dish. Circa 1738

En suite to the preceding dish, two very small rim restorations 23 cm. diam. Est. €2,000 - €3,000

Notes: Commissioned in 1735, 'The Doctors Visit to the Emperor' is the second design drawn by Cornelis Pronk for the Dutch East India Company, the first being 'La Dame au Parasol' in 1734. Due to the expense of transferring the subject onto porcelain, the volume of Pronk's work is small and only two orders of this design were believed to have been placed: the first was carried to the Netherlands on the Hogersmilde at the end of 1738 followed by the second order in the next year.

Christie's. The Decorative Arts Sale Includingg The J.V.N. Van Achterbergh Collection And Fine Paintings. 30 June - 1 July 2009. Amsterdam www.christies.com