A Rare Chinese Export 'Van Tets' Armorial Punch Pot, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1767-69

Elinor Gordon, Villanova, Pennsylvania

Wolf Family Collection No. 0694 (acquired from the above January, 1984)

For the arms, see Dr. Jochem Kroes, Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, Zwolle, 2007, pp. 345-346, cat. no. 266. The accolleé arms represent the marriage between Arnoldus Adrianus van Tets (1738-1792) and his wife Wilhelmina Jacoba Hartingh (1750-1813) in 1767. Arnoldus Adrianus van Tets studied law at Leiden University and later in 1756, sailed on the ship Rhoon to Batavia and joined as a junior merchant on the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the Delegate of Native Affairs 13 years later. Portraits painted by the North Netherlandish artist Abraham van Strij (1753-1826) of Arnoldus Adrianus van Tets and Wilhelmina Jacoba Hartingh and their children are now in the collection of the Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague.

According to Kroes, approximately 45 pieces of this dinner service and eight pieces from a tea service are extant. The only other known punch pot was formerly in the private collection of Elinor Gordon, and sold in these rooms, January 23, 2010, lot 198, and illustrated in Elinor Gordon, Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, New York, 1977, pl. II.