Description
| Restored.
Dia: 11,5 cm. Decorated with a scene 'The Bull's Cruelty', after the Dutch painting, depicting a farmer and his wife attacked by a bull, the farmer lying on the ground, wounded, and his wife thrown up in the air giving premature birth to a baby which falls on the ground together with her shoes, a windmill on the left and a boy flying a kite on the right, the reverse inscribed 29 Augustus 1647. The drama took place in Zaandam on 29th August, 1647, when a woman rushed to her husband who was being thrown in the air because of a bull who was probably startled by a boy flying a kite. The wife gave birth to her son in mid-air and both fell on the ground. The parents died directly after the drama and the child survived, but died nine months later. The family is buried in the 'Bullenkerk' or Westzijderkerk Zaandam, where the painting (dated 1737) which was the example for the decoration of this cup and saucer, hangs as well, together with a poem ('Des Stiers Wreedheyt') which describes the incident. (see D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain - Chine de Commande, London, 1974, ill. 358 for a plate in the Zaanlandse Oudheidskamer, Zaandijk; and Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and for the whole group with this subject see: Hervouèt et Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes a Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, pp. 380-381 pls. 16.50-16.54) |
Lot 57
A Dutch-decorated Chinese porcelain saucer showing "The miracle of Zaandam", dated 1747
This lot was sold on 12 October 2015 and is no longer available
