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Kendi on a short foot with a glazed base. The round sides with a bulbous spout, the cylindrical neck with an overturned rim. On the sides, frontally depicted opposite the spout, a phoenix with spread tail feathers flanked by a chrysanthemum and scrolls on both sides. The shoulder with a striped band, the neck with tulips separated by beaded pendants. The rim with flower scrolls, the spout with cloud motifs.
The phoenix is a rather common motif on porcelain of the second half of the 17th century. The bird is frontally portrayed in flight, its tail feathers spread out in a decorative manner, symmetrically on both sides of the neck. This is an uncommon way of depicting birds on Japanese porcelain although the peacock is sometimes found rendered in a similar position. The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam has a bottle painted in early enamels with two crane-like birds with peacocks tails, one of which is also depicted almost frontally. On a kendi in the same palette in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford a peacock is depicted in the same manner as on the Princessehof kendi. The tulips are a decorative motif derived from Chinese Transitional porcelain. This kendi was acquired in Indonesia.
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