A Doccia white porcelain pierced vase, 1750

The Crane Collection;

Bonhams, London, 6 July 2010, lot 216.

Pierced forms of this type, in this case single-walled but usually double-walled, are rare due to the difficulties encountered with firing, as the pierced sections were prone to cracking in the kiln. They were made at Doccia for around ten years, from about 1748, and were based on earlier Chinese ceramics from the province of Fu-Kien. This type of decoration was also taken up the Viennese factory of Du Paquier and at Meissen, under the direction of Böttger. For further discussion of this group, see A. d'Agliano, Settecento Europeo e Barocco Toscano nelle porcellane di Carlo Ginori a Doccia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, 1996, p. 70, and p. 71, no. 49 for a double-walled bowl with similar applied floral decoration between ram's head handles. For a pierced coffee pot with very similar floral decoration to the present lot and further discussion of these rare pieces see A. Biancalana, Porcellane e Maioliche a Doccia, La Fabbrica dei Marchesi Ginori, I Primi Cento Anni, Florence, 1996, p. 113 and A. d’Agliano et al., Lucca e le porcellane della Manifattura Ginori, Commissioni patrizie e ordinative di corte, Lucca, 2001, p. 80, cat. no. 7. See also A. Dawson, ‘Unexpected Treasures - Doccia porcelain in the British Museum’, Amici di Doccia Quaderni III, 2000, p. 21, fig. 12, for an ovoid double-walled pierced bowl in the British Museum, London, of similar form and decoration to the present vase (museum no. Franks.462).