The Magazine Antiques, New🌜 York, vol. CXXI, no. 5, May 1982, p. 1021, advertisemeꦛnt for Stair & Company.

Known as 'mantlepiece sets', the complete group of five vases in the present lot were intended to be assembled and displayed together to form an impressive display atop a mantlepiece over a fireplace, as displayed in the Wolf Family Residence. The present set of vases utilize forms never before seen in Chinese art. This, co𝕴mbined with the use of the unusual lavender-ground diaper pattern and naturalistic floral sprig, all indicate that these examples were attributed to designs by Dutch artist and porcelain designer Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759).

Pronk was one of the most important multi-genre artists in the Dutch Republic in the early 18th century. He studied portrait painting under Dutch painter Arnold Boonen (1669-1729), and became well-known in for his views of cities and topographical drawings, which were turned into copper engravings for the book Verheelijkt Nederland (The Netherlands Glorified). In 1734, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie abbreviated VOC) faced financial and management challenges in the Chinese p🧸orcelain trade and subsequently contracted Cornelis Pronk to produce drawings of designs for porcelains to be made in China for a period of three years. Pronk was to produce one design per year including the painted decorations as well as the forms of the works.

In totaꦆl, he supplied designs on four occasions over the period of three and a half years. Drawings for the first two designs, 'La Dame au Parasol' and 'The Doctors' Visit' are extant and in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, acc. nos. RP-T-1967-18 (plate design for La Dame au Parasol), RP-T-1967-2꧂0 (salt cellar design for La Dame au Parasol), RP-T-1967-17 (cup, saucer and dish design for The Doctors' Visit). Scholars, however, hold different opinions on the remaining Pronk designs, and pieces are attributed to Pronk based on stylistic similarities.

Full sets of five examples with three bottle vases and two upright beaker vases are extremely rare. There appears to be only one other full set known, sold at Christie's New York, January 30, 1993, lot 72, and subsequently in the collection of Andrew Crispo, sold again in these rooms, January 20, 2005, lot 106. The set was originally accompanied by covers atop the three bottle vases, but the covers were lacking when they were sold in 2005. A pair of bottle vases is in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, and illustrated in William R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Concord, 2012, cat. no. 151, p. 289.