843 - Japanese export Arita porcelain soup plate after the Cornelis Pronk design "La Dame au Parasol," ca. 1738. Depicting a Japanese lady in a kimono attended by her maidservant holding a paper parasol. The elements of the scene and border are similar to the Chinese version but by a different hand. Illustrated in Howard, "The Choice of the Private Trader," pg. 76, no. 57. Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, "Chinese Export Porcelain," 25 January 1989, Lot 222; The Distinguished Collection of Leo & Doris Hodroff. 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 was decorated at Arita in Japan in an imitation of the famille rose Pronk designed plate. Jorg notes that a few pieces of Pronk's actual design were indeed painted in Japan but efforts were abandoned due to the higher cost of production in Japan compared to China. Diameter: 10 1/2 in.