Pair of vases; China, Qing Dynasty, Yongzhen period, 1723- 1735.

Pair of vases; China, Qing Dynasty, Yongzhen period, 1723- 1735.
Enameled and glazed porcelain "Batavian ware". Pink family.
Featuring gilt bronze mounts; France, Napoleon III, third quarter of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 30 x 29,5 x 20 cm (x2).
Pair of Chinese porcelain vases adorned with French bronze mounts. The body style with that brown finish is known as "Batavia Brown" is a decorative style of Chinese export porcelain that uses a brown glaze covering the surface, with or without panels, along with underglaze blue or various glazes such as family pink or Imari. The ware seems to have been named after the city of Batavia (present-day Jakarta), which at the time was the trading center of the Dutch East India Company in Southeast Asia. The decoration also seems to have been especially popular with the Dutch, who may have used the word Batavia as a synonym because of the Chinese scrap trade and transshipment to Dutch ships via Batavia.
Export items with this decoration were common during the first half of the 18th century and included round dishes, vases, teapots, tea bowls, saucers, lidded pitchers, and other useful items. This style was preceded by a similar style in light celadon green, with or without underglaze blue combinations, which appeared between 1660 and 1680 on both Japanese Arita ware and Chinese porcelain. One of the earliest examples of "Batavian" style iron brown glazes with wucai style glazes within panels is a square bowl of Japanese Arita ware dated 1699.