Double Peacock Dinner Service

The Double Peacock Service is a royal dining service, made of hard-paste porcelain, of very fine quality, produced in Emperor Qianlong's China, on demand, for Europe, brought and sold by the East India Company.

Estimates say that about twenty thousand pieces of the currently called “Peacock Service” (also known as “Double Peacock Service” or "Two Peacocks Service") between 1750 and 1795 have been produced, and today, close to 250 years later, about five thousand pieces remain, distributed throughout the world. This pattern is specially collected in Brazil, Portugal and England, and can be found in many museums.

With octogonal, rococo design or, in its latest batches, rounded shapes, the plate is made of white, lumpy chinaware (porcelain), decorated with enamel with the customary colours of the so-called “Famille Rose”. The border contains four branches forming a cross and the edge in rouge de fer, always alternated with eye-catching stylizations of blue branches. In the center, two peacocks placed over rocks and a branch with big peonies, separated from the border of the piece by a fleur-de-lis frieze.

Besides plates of several sizes, many types of tureens, pots, gravy boats, platters with different shapes, butter tubs, honey and salt dishes, wine-coolers and bowls were made.

The name “Peacock Service” is used because this china has as decoration two of these animals over rocks, as its main element.

The expert Almeida Santos wrote in his “Manual do Colecionador Brasileiro” [“Guide for the Brazilian Collector”]: “The services for imperial use, in Brazil, include the ‘Roosters”, the “Shepherds”, and the “Peacocks”. The Double Peacock Service is the finest one of the “Famille Rose” and was made on demand for Europe, without any doubt. The “Peacocks” are very well designed. By the way, the chinaware is, let us say, a mix of the “Famille Verte” and the “Famille Rose”. It has large roses painted showing up, which forces the classification as “Famille Rose”, but the decoration in general is characteristic of the “Famille Verte”, with landscapes and fowls.”

It is a service known as “traveller”, because it was taken from China to Portugal, and from Portugal to Brazil, when John VI, then Prince of Portugal, afraid from the Napoleonic Wars, moved to Rio de Janeiro with his mother, Queen Mary I. In Brazil, it was used in the Paço de São Cristóvão.

The Chinese porcelain services for imperial use, brought to Brazil by King John were dispersed after the Proclamation of the Republic, and as such they have become extremely rare pieces, largely sought by collectors from all over the world. Currently, pieces are sold mostly by the main auctioneers of Europe and the United States. Googling on the internet, it is possible to see that many pieces have been sold on the latest twenty years by Sotheby's, Bonham's, Christie's^[1] and Bukowskis auction houses.

They are also part of the porcelain collection of the Historic Charleston Foundation in the United States.