Ewer on footring, the neck ending in a short triangular spout. C-shaped handle. Complete with a 17th-century Dutch silver lid, marked Minne Sikkes, Leeuwarden 1642.* Transitional porcelain, decorated in underglaze blue with a landscape with bamboo and rocks, a scholar resting by a boulder. In his left hand a fan, beside him a tall cylindrical bundle of scrolls. To his left two servants, one holding two books, the other a covered dish(?). On the shoulder a band with flower scrolls, on the neck a flower with symmetrically placed leaves. Around the foot a row of stylised lotus-petal motifs. Such ewers after a European model were made especially for the VOC as well as for Dutch private merchants. As they were supplied without lids, the handle was manufactured with a hole so that a mount could be attached in The Netherlands. This mount made by the silversmith Minne Sikkes of Leeuwarden dates from 1642 and is one of the earliest known on transitional porcelain. Characteristic of this export transitional porcelain is the heavily potted body, the smooth glaze, the all-over figural decoration, and the ‘tulip’ motif on the neck. The motif of a scholar who has retreated into nature for a ...