.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Thomas Pitt of Blandford married Lady Frances Ridgeway in 1717 and was created Baron Londonderry in 1719. His father, a Governor of Fort St. George India, had fostered the family fortune when he sold a 140-carat Indian diamond, later called the 'Régent Diamond' and currently held at the Louvre, to the French royal family for an enormous profit. His grandson, nephew of the Thomas Pitt who commissioned the present dish, was to become the famous statesman and Prime Minister, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham ('Pitt the Elder'), making Thomas Pitt also great-uncle to William's son, Prime Minister William Pitt 'The Younger'.
David Sanctuary Howard writes that the production of this service can only have taken place in the years between 1719, when Thomas Pitt assumed the title of baron, and 1723, when the sacred lingzhi fungus mark at its underside became "expressly forbidden" on Chinese export porcelain. He also notes that the use of iron-red and brown to achieve the crimson of the baronial coronet likely places its production early in this range, writing that "by 1723, this could have been rose enamel". For his full discussion, see D.S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, London, 1974, p. 184, no. B9.
David Sanctuary Howard writes that the production of this service can only have taken place in the years between 1719, when Thomas Pitt assumed the title of baron, and 1723, when the sacred lingzhi fungus mark at its underside became "expressly forbidden" on Chinese export porcelain. He also notes that the use of iron-red and brown to achieve the crimson of the baronial coronet likely places its production early in this range, writing that "by 1723, this could have been rose enamel". For his full discussion, see D.S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, London, 1974, p. 184, no. B9.