Lot Essay
The shipping scenes on these teabowls and saucers are probably based on the series of engravings 'Suite de huit Marines' by the Florentine draughtsman and printmaker Stefano della Bella (1610-1664). See Ulrich Pietsch et al., Triumph of the Blue Swords, Dresden, 2010, p. 213, cat. no. 101, for a tea and coffee service painted with very similar scenes from the same source, which was sold in the Marouf Collection, Part I, at Bonham's in London on 5 December 2012, lot 20.