FOUR CHINESE IMARI 'DAME AU PARASOL' PLATES

This design was drawn up by the Dutch draughtsman Cornelis Pronk in 1734. It was the first drawing he made for the Dutch East India Company and was sent, via Batavia, to both China and Japan to be copied onto porcelain. Services with this design are known in blue and white and in the famille rose palette, as well as in Chinese Imari. See C.J.A. Jörg, Pronk Porcelain, Groningen, 1980, pp.14-28, and pp.61-73, for a full discussion of this design. The original drawing is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.