842 - Chinese export Pronk designed "La Dame au Parasol" porcelain soup plate, ca. 1738-40. Decorated in Imari after the well-known Pronk scene depicting a lady standing before waterbirds as her attendant shades her with a parasol. Provenance: Christie's, New York, "The Benjamin F. Edwards III Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain, Part II," 22 January 2003, Lot 106; The Distinguished Collection of Leo & Doris Hodroff. Reference: Howard, "The Choice of the Private Trader," pg. 73, no. 53. Lot Essay: Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) was appointed by the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) to "...make all designs and models to our satisfaction, of all such porcelain as will be ordered from time to time in the Indies..." Before the decade was done, Pronk had left the company and the number of designs known to be created by him was small. There are only four preserved designs in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Most were created in famille rose, Chinese Imari and underglaze blue, though some were also created in Japanese Imari. The overall cost of creating his designs was high and not many were ordered, most before the early 1740s. This design is distinctly European and even includes two species of European waterbirds - the ruff and the spoonbill. It was the first of Pronk's designs sent to China in 1734. Although initially designs for the V.O.C., Dutch supercargoes reported that within a short time the Chinese had copied the pattern and were making it available for private traders in Canton. Diameter: 10 in.