Brightly painted on each side with large blooms growing from blue rockwork, smaller sprays on the sides, the lappets floral-decorated on each side, the inside with matching floral decoration.

ProvenanceAnonymous sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 March 1989, lot 331. 
The Collection of Benjamin Edwards III; Christie's, New York, 26 January 2010, lot 47.

MARCHANT, EST. 1925 (Lots 59-100 and 116-173)

NoteThis monumental basin would have been intended for the chilling of whole bottles, while the more familiar, smaller, round form was used for icing glasses. The crenellated rims first appear in English silver of the 1680s, named after an eccentric Scot, Lord Monteith, who wore his cloak hem notched in this fashion. By about 1710 the Dutch were producing monteith bowls in Delftware. 

Five related examples are published; this may have been a set of six made to stand around a great dining room. A pair from the collection of a European noble family was sold Christie's, London, 16 December 1996, lot 293. A single in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 11, pl. 25. Another single is illustrated by Beurdeley, op. cit., cat. 52, and a final single, reputedly from the collection of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, was exhibited by Cohen & Cohen in Now and Then, November 2005, no. 13. These monteiths are among the most monumental and impressive porcelains ever made for the China trade. .   

Christie's. Chinese Export Art Featuring 100 lots from Marchant, est 1925, 18 January 2018, New York