Sotheby Parke Be💮rnet Monaco, May 27, 1980, lot 952

Spink and Son, London

Kee Il Choi, New York (acquired from the above on November 5,ꦗ 1981)

Wolf Family Collection No. 0569 (acquireꦕd from the above on December 4, 1981)

The 'Scotsmen' or 'Highlanders' decoration count as one of the most important and iconic imageries seen on Chinese export art. The figures in the center depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. The source print of the piper is discussed by David Sanctuary Howard, 'Chinese Porcelain of the Jacobites - I', Country Life, January 25, 1973. Howard notes that the piper was taken from an engraving by George Brickham and published on A short history of the Highland Regiment, London, 1743; and the private was also after a drawing by Brickham of the same date. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, and on July 18, 1743, Privates ൩Samuel, Farquar Shaw, Malcolm McPherson were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia, USA, 🐼as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialized on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures.

The current example represents the most archetypal form seen with the 'Scotsmen' decoration, and also Chinese export punch bowls are known depicting the figures, such as the preceding lot. A nearly identical plate, formerly in the collection of Khalil Rizk, sold in these rooms, April 25, 2008, lot 186. According to David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, London, 1978, Vol. I, cat. no. 234, pp 239-240, when discuss✱ing an example now formerly 🐓in the Mottahedeh Collection, that at least twenty plates are known, and most showing little to no signs of wear, most likely because they were probably hidden and never used upon the return from China. Five or more punch bowls are known, and some show signs of use.