winter exhibition 2008

Transcription

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WINTER EXHIBITION 2008
Roger Keverne
2nd Floor, 16 Clifford Street
London W1S 3RG
Telephone: 020 7434 9100
Facsimile: 020 7434 9101
enquiries@keverne.co.uk
www.keverne.co.uk
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FINE AND RARE CHINESE
WORKS OF ART AND CERAMICS
WINTER EXHIBITION
30 OCTOBER 2008
Roger Keverne
London W1S 3RG
Telephone: 020 7434 9100
Facsimile: 020 7434 9101
www.keverne.co.uk
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INTRODUCTION
We are pleased to present our 2008 Winter exhibition catalogue to coincide with
Asian Art in London. We do hope that those who visit London this winter will
come and see us, and view the exhibition.
We are fortunate to offer for sale ceramics and works of art from many
distinguished collectors; some we are able to name, while others prefer to
remain anonymous. We have silver from the Cunliffe and Sackler collections;
porcelains from the well-known collections of H. M. Knight, Ira and Nancy Koger
and Hugo Munsterberg; jades from the collections of E. T. Chow, T. B. Walker and
Neil Phillips; and, among particularly fine and rare examples of lacquer, objects
from the collection of Ambassador Doullens, the French Ambassador to Beijing
before 1914. Alfred and Ivy Clark were formidable collectors, generous hosts and
donors to many museums, and we are showing a painted enamel dish that once
belonged to them. Claude Gillot (1853–1903) is a name perhaps not greatly
known to many outside France. He was a friend of Henri Vever and Samuel Bing,
and had a natural eye, collecting across all cultures. We have bronzes, an imperial
cloisonné enamel panel and a Ming pottery bowl from his collection.
Having recently visited Beijing and seen the remarkable restoration work being
done in the Qianlong Emperor’s retirement quarters – the Juanqinzhai (Studio of
Exhaustion from Diligent Service) and the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City
– we feel privileged to be able to include a particularly rare lacquer vase made
for the Chonghua gong (Palace of Double Brilliance), where he lived as a young
man before his accession to the throne as the Qianlong Emperor.
I would like to thank the following people for their hard work, dedication and
enthusiasm in the production of this catalogue: Ken Adlard for the photography;
Amanda Brookes for the design; Katharine Butler for co-ordinating the project;
Anthony Evans for the translations; Paul Forty for the proofreading; Richard Owers
of Beacon Press, a carbon neutral printer, for the printing; and Miranda Clarke for
the catalogue preparation. I must add my profound thanks to Kerry Nguyen-Long
for providing the research and background information on the Vietnamese imperial
gold dish, and to Dr Tran Du Anh Son for translating its inscription; and also to
Tuyet Nguyet and her son, Robin Markbreiter, of Arts of Asia, for kindly putting
me in touch with them.
Roger Keverne
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CONTENTS
METAL
5
CERAMIC
39
ENAMEL
67
JADE & HARDSTONE
91
ORGANIC
125
TEXTILE
153
BIBLIOGRAPHY
156
CHRONOLOGY
160
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metal
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ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
1
An archaic bronze vessel (fangding )
Late Shang dynasty
Height: 9P in, 25.1 cm
the deep, rectangular-section vessel has flanged corners and an everted rim set with two loop
handles on the shorter sides, and is supported on four robust cylindrical legs issuing from bold,
horned monster masks against leiwen, bisected by short flanges. Each of the four faces is cast
with a narrow frieze of two pairs of birds against leiwen, bisected by a vertical flange, above a
rectangular panel and six rows of bosses. Distinct mould marks are visible on the base of the
vessel. The surface is a greyish-green tone with extensive malachite and some cuprite and
azurite encrustation.
Formerly in a Western private collection.
A very similar vessel, excavated in Qingdao, Shandong province, in 1986 is illustrated
in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Da Quan (Bronze volume), no. 42, p. 13; and note another
in Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935–6, no. 33, lent by the
Chinese government.
For two related examples with leiwen to the rectangular panel, see Chen, Ancient Chinese
Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, no. 23, p. 50; and Kao, Masterworks of Chinese Bronze in
the National Palace Museum, Supplement, no. 7.
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2
An archaic bronze wine vessel (jue )
Late Shang dynasty
Height: 9I in, 24.2 cm
supported on three long, triangular-section, blade-like legs, the elegant ovoid body is cast
with a frieze of two taotie masks against a leiwen ground; the masks are bisected by a vertical
flange and a strap handle that issues from an animal mask. The long, curving spout is flanked
by two semi-cylindrical posts with waisted caps decorated with horizontal bands and whorls.
The vessel has a mellow patina with malachite and cuprite encrustation.
A line drawing of a similar vessel is illustrated in Chang, “Li Kung-Lin and the Study of
Antiquity in the Sung Dynasty”, pl. 16, p. 82, where it is noted that Li Kung-Lin “had two
vessel types in his possession that he did not know what to call, and so he pored through
the classics for references and named them chüeh (jue) and ku (gu), by which they are known
to this day”.
For related jue, see Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, no. 28; China: Cultuur
Vroeger en Nu, no. 27, p. 37, in the collection of the Ostasiatiska Museet, Stockholm;
and Finlay, The Chinese Collection: selected works from the Norton Museum of Art, no. 7,
pp. 86–7.
9
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3
4
An unusual bronze belt hook
Warring States period or Han dynasty
Length: 3K in, 9.2 cm
A fine gold- and silver-inlaid bronze
belt hook
Warring States period
Length: 4 in, 10.2 cm
the small hook is cast as a serpent’s head.
The body bears an openwork design of a
feline splitting open a scaly outer shell to
retrieve a segmented, worm-like creature.
A circular button, incised with characters,
most probably reading Xin Han (a name),
projects from the centre of the back and
serves as a seal. The mellow bronze bears
malachite and some cuprite encrustation.
Two belt hooks, with buttons serving also as
seals, are illustrated in Beningson and Liu,
Providing for the Afterlife: “Brilliant
Artifacts” from Shandong, no. 16, pp. 55–6;
and in Wang, Belt Ornaments Through The
Ages: Wellington Wang Collection, p. 123.
For belt hooks of similar design, see
Karlgren and Wirgin, Chinese Bronzes:
The Natanael Wessén Collection, no. 50f,
pl. 63, pp. 158–9; Rawson and Bunker,
Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes,
no. 232, pp. 354–5; Watson, Handbook to
the Collections of Early Chinese Antiquities,
fig. 20f, p. 72; and Zhang, Zhongguo
Qingtongqi Quanji, Vol. 8, no. 159, p. 141.
the hook is simply decorated as an animal’s
head. The broad body is cast in openwork
as two stylised phoenixes, their curling
bodies intricately entwined. The bronze is
embellished with inlays of gold and silver
and now bears malachite encrustation. A
large circular button projects from the rear.
For similar examples, see The Art of the
Warring States Period, no. 148, p. 103;
and Zhang, Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji,
Vol. 9, no. 61, p. 64, unearthed in 1978
from tomb no. 51 of the site of the ancient
capital of Lu in Qufu, Shandong province.
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5
A very fine gold- and silver-inlaid bronze chariot finial
Warring States period or Western Han dynasty
of cylindrical form with three raised rings around the centre, decorated with simple inlay
designs of silver vertical lines and gold S-scrolls. The upper and lower portions are decorated
with broad friezes of complex, elegant, highly stylised bird scrolls in gold and silver inlay.
The bronze surface is now a particularly attractive mellow reddish-brown tone.
Formerly in the collection of Charles Gillot (1853–1903), bought in 1900 from Laurent Héliot,
Paris, and sold at Maître Paul Chevallier, Paris, 8–13 February 1904, lot 1020 (label remaining
on the outside at the base).
A very similar example is illustrated in Huang, Artifacts in the Nanyue King’s Tomb of Western
Han Dynasty, no. 63, p. 147.
For further fittings with similar designs, see Hansford, The Seligman Collection of Oriental Art,
Vol. I, fig. A52, pl. XXVI; Uldry, Chinesisches Gold und Silber: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry,
nos. 65 and 66, p. 108; and Watson, Art of Dynastic China, fig. 296.
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6
A rare gold and bronze scholar’s knife
Length: 6P in, 17.4 cm
the curved bronze blade has a triangular
section which thins towards the tip, and
has a horizontal raised ridge to one side;
it is heavily encrusted with malachite.
The blade is fixed into a thick gold looped
handle.
A very similar bronze knife of the Spring
and Autumn period, excavated in 1977
from Gaozhuang M18, Fengxiang (site
of a Qin capital), and now in the Shaanxi
Provincial Archaeological Institute, is
discussed in Portal, The First Emperor:
China’s Terracotta Army, fig. 54, cat. no. 30,
p. 64, where it is noted that they were used
by officials for scraping off mistakes made
when writing on wood slips, and note the
detail from a terracotta official, fig. 53,
cat. no. 24, pp. 64–5, of such a knife
hanging from the belt.
For such knives in bronze with gold
handles, see The Art of the Warring States
Period, no. 144, p. 101; and Zhongguo
Wenwu Jinghua Da Quan (Bronze volume),
no. 976, p. 271.
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7
A bronze incense burner
Western Han dynasty
Diameter: 6G in, 16.2 cm
the globular censer is supported on a waisted
stem and stands in an integral tray with a
flat base and shallow, sloping sides that
turn sharply upwards and end in a flat rim.
The cover of the censer (now fused to the
bowl) is cast with a wide openwork scroll
beneath a quatrefoil and is surmounted
by a small finial in the form of a bird.
The olive-green bronze bears heavy cuprite
and malachite encrustation, now polished
smooth on the bowl of the censer.
For similar incense burners, see LionGoldschmidt and Moreau-Gobard, Chinese
Art, no. 55, p. 83; Shi, Treasures from the
Han, p. 79, in the collection of the Henan
Provincial Museum; and Zhang, Zhongguo
Qingtongqi Quanji, Vol. 12, no. 121, p. 123.
A similar example lacking the tray is
illustrated in Rawson and Bunker, Ancient
Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, no. 44,
pp. 140–1, where it is noted that this type
of censer precedes the invention of the hill
censer (boshanlu).
8
An unusual gilt-bronze cup and cover
Western Han dynasty
Height: 4 in, 10.2 cm
of ovoid form and circular section, and
supported on three cabriole legs. The
widest part of the vessel is decorated with
a thickened band and a central raised rib,
and a circular handle is set to one side.
The cover bears three small ring finials that
double as feet when it is inverted. The bright
gilt surface bears cuprite encrustation.
This rare vessel is obviously closely related
to a dui, a food offering vessel of two
equal-sized matching halves, that made its
appearance in the bronze repertory in the
Eastern Zhou dynasty: see, for example,
Trubner, Royal Ontario Museum: The Far
Eastern Collection, no. 22, p. 28. Note also
a related gilt-bronze ring-handled vessel
illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Da
Quan (Bronze volume), no. 1084, p. 302.
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9
A very fine and rare turquoise-inlaid bronze buckle
Western Han dynasty
Diameter: 7 in, 17.8 cm
the dish-shaped buckle is inlaid with a pale orange agate button in the centre. A narrow black
lacquer band encloses the button and is inlaid with small pierced turquoise discs in a ray
pattern on a ground of red lacquer trelliswork. This is further enclosed by a broad frieze of
pierced turquoise discs. A triangular hook-and-hole fastener projects from the back of the
buckle, set off-centre. The bronze is heavily encrusted with malachite and bears extensive
textile remains where it was wrapped during burial.
A very similar buckle, unearthed in burial no. 68 of Lijiashan, Jiangchuan county, Yunnan
province, and now in the collection of the Lijiashan Bronze Museum, is illustrated in
Dai et al, Hunting and Rituals: Treasures from the Ancient Dian Kingdom of Yunnan, no. 56,
p. 101, and note also no. 69, pp. 118–19, an inlaid bronze buckle together with its gold belt,
found in burial no. 51 of Lijiashan, where it is noted: “This belt accessory shows how lavishly
Dian noblemen dressed, and tells us accurately how bronze buckles were worn. The incised
rectangular hook at the back is a fastener, just like the hook of the belt. It also serves as a
decorative feature.”
For further examples, see Li, The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes: From the Anthony
& Susan Hardy Collections and the Sze Yuan Tang, nos. 87 and 88, pp. 192–5; and Wang,
Belt Ornaments Through The Ages: Wellington Wang Collection, p. 130.
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11
A gilt-bronze support in the form of a bear
Western Han dynasty
Height: 2D in, 5.8 cm
A gilt-bronze TLV mirror
Han dynasty
Diameter: 5D in, 13.4 cm
the animal is seated with one leg
outstretched and its forepaws raised. It has
heavy brows, a broad open muzzle revealing
its teeth, and chased areas representing fur.
There is a tubular socket on its back.
with a plain domed suspension loop
surrounded by a quatrefoil within a square
frame. The main frieze consists of symbols
comparable to the letters T, L and V, eight
small bosses and four pairs of birds in
thread relief, all enclosed by a fourteencharacter inscription, which possibly reads
“This mirror made by Shang Fang shields
powerfully against harm, Its exquisitely
carved craftsmanship attains distinction”,
and a striated band. The raised rim is cast
with two chevron bands. The decorative
elements are gilt and the reflective bronze
surface of the mirror is now heavily
encrusted with malachite and cuprite.
For an interesting essay on the subject of
bears, which reached their height of
popularity as visual motifs during the
Western Han dynasty, see Wang, A Bronze
Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China,
pp. 87–91, where it is noted that the
animals were associated with military
prowess, shamanism and immortality.
See Shih, The National Palace Museum
Guidebook, p. 148, for a similar Han
dynasty bronze bear-shaped zun vessel
and a jade version dating to the Qianlong
period. For further examples, see Donnelly,
The Animal in Chinese Art, no. 377, fig. F,
pl. 12, in the collection of the Seattle Art
Museum; and Hájek and Forman, A Book
of Chinese Art: Four thousand years of
sculpture, painting, bronze, jade, lacquer
and porcelain, no. 117.
The TLV motif is also the game board
pattern of liubo: see Chou, Circles of
Reflection: The Carter Collection of Chinese
Bronze Mirrors, pp. 3–4.
For related TLV mirrors with gilt surfaces,
see Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu
Collection, no. 283, dated Eastern Han;
Chou, op cit, no. 25, pp. 42–3, dated
Western Han; The Crucible of Compassion
and Wisdom: Special Exhibition Catalog of
the Buddhist Bronzes of the Nitta Group
Collection at the National Palace Museum,
pl. 88, p. 294, dated Han; Lin, Clarified
Beauty of Bronze Mirrors: Wellington Wang
Collection, no. 53, p. 93, dated Eastern
Han; and Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, The Han
Civilization of China, no. 139, p. 182, in
the collection of the Tenri Museum, Japan,
and dated circa AD 100.
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A fine bronze mirror
Tang dynasty
Diameter: 5I in, 14 cm
heavily cast with eight pointed lobes and
a thickened rim. A sunken frieze of four
ducks in flight and floral sprays surrounds
the knop, rendered as a crouching beast,
and eight flowers decorate the border.
The metal is a bright silver-grey, with some
darker areas, mainly to the reflective side,
and some bright malachite spots.
Such mirrors were often given as wedding
presents, and this example with ducks, that
mate for life, would have been particularly
suitable.
For similar examples, see Bronze Articles
for Daily Use: The Complete Collection of
Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 173,
p. 196; Catalogue of Special Exhibition
of Bronze Mirrors in the National Palace
Museum, pl. 110, pp. 202–03; and
Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas
Collections, Bronze I, no. 207, p. 210, in
the collection of the Asian Art Museum of
San Francisco.
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A rare, large silver-inlaid bronze mirror
Tang dynasty
Diameter: 7N in, 19.7 cm
of circular form with a plain, domed
suspension loop and a thickened rim. The
mirror is inlaid on a lacquer ground with
a sheet of silver cut with a design of birds
in leafy scrolls about a hexafoil around the
knop and with a lappet border, all with
chased details. The reflective surface is
now a dark gunmetal-grey colour.
This mirror appears to be extremely rare,
but for two Tang lacquer boxes decorated
in similar style, see Gray et al, The Arts of
the T’ang Dynasty, no. 353, fig. c, pl. 16;
and Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in
Overseas Collections, Lacquerware, no. 16,
p. 16, in the Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City. Note also a related large box,
dated eighth century, in Hayashi, The Silk
Road and the Shoso-in, no. 127, p. 117.
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A rare set of eleven gilt-bronze belt plaques
Tang dynasty
Maximum length: 3D in, 8.2 cm
nine of rectangular form and two longer end plaques, each with one curved side. Each of the
smaller plaques is cast with a Central Asian musician seated on a fringed mat; the figure has
an incised beard and hair, curled behind, draped robes and a long, billowing scarf. Four of the
musicians play the paiban (clappers) and five the sheng (pipe harmonica). The two end pieces
are similarly decorated with pairs of figures playing the sheng. The backs of the plaques have
four pins for attachment and the fronts are gilt, with some malachite encrustation.
Examples of the sheng have been recovered from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng
(circa 433 BC) and are discussed by Feng Guangsheng in So, Music in the Age of Confucius,
pp. 87–99.
A similar set of eleven belt plaques is illustrated in Bronze Articles for Daily Use:
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 178, p. 201.
Such plaques are more often found in jade: see, for example, Michaelson, Gilded Dragons:
Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages, fig. 65, pp. 105–06, for a set of sixteen, excavated
in 1970 from Hejiacun in the southern suburbs of Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and now in the
Shaanxi History Museum; and Watt, The Arts of Ancient China, fig. 75, p. 59, for a set of ten.
23
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A fine gold hairpin
Song or Yuan dynasty
Length: 6G in, 16.2 cm
with two slightly wavy flattened pins. The
U-shaped top is decorated with graduated
rings.
Very similar examples are illustrated in
Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
Carl Kempe Collection, no. 28, pp. 82–3;
and in Uldry, Chinesisches Gold und
Silber: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry,
no. 291, p. 242. Note also four related gold
hairpins in Song Yun: Sichuan Yao Cang
Wenwu Jicui, pp. 108–09, dated Southern
Song dynasty.
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17
A fine parcel-gilt silver box and cover
Tang dynasty
A small silver box and cover
Tang dynasty, 7th–8th centuries
Diameter: 1P in, 4.8 cm
of circular form with a domed top and
bottom, and straight sides. The top is finely
decorated with a design of two mandarin
ducks, perched on broad flowers borne on
leafy stems, amid other leafy branches, and
with leaf scrolls to the sides, all gilt with
chased details, on a finely ring-punched
ground. The box is similarly decorated.
of circular form with straight sides and a
shallow, domed base and cover. The top
and base are chased and engraved with
birds perched on a leafy, floral scroll, and
the sides with cloud scrolls, all on a dense,
ring-matted ground.
A very similar silver example is illustrated
in Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in
the Carl Kempe Collection, no. 94,
pp. 146–7.
For related boxes, see Gyllensvärd, Chinese
Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
nos. 91 and 92, pp. 144–5; Kelley, Chinese
Gold and Silver in American Collections:
Tang Dynasty AD 618–907, no. 35, p. 69;
and Trubner, “The Arts of the T’ang
Dynasty”, no. 353.
For related parcel-gilt silver boxes,
see Kelley, Chinese Gold and Silver in
American Collections: Tang Dynasty
AD 618–907, no. 36, p. 69; Uldry,
Chinesisches Gold und Silber: Die
Sammlung Pierre Uldry, no. 167; and
Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Da Quan
(Metal, Jade, Stone volume), no. 89, p. 117.
Formerly in the Cunliffe collection,
no. A115.
25
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A rare parcel-gilt silver tray
Liao or Jin dynasty
Length: 6N in, 17.2 cm
of quatrefoil form with low, flaring sides and an everted flange rim. The dish is decorated
with a design of two phoenixes amid leafy, flowering aster. The birds have delicately chased
feathers and long ribbon tails. The flange rim is decorated with a classic scroll chased in dotted
lines. The decoration bears the remains of a gilt wash.
Exhibited: Eskenazi, Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 1974, no. 22.
Formerly in the Sackler collection, no. 66, and in a Western private collection.
A silver tray of this shape, found in a hoard of silver vessels, circa 1100, near Bairin Youqi,
Inner Mongolia, is illustrated in Wenwu, 1980, no. 5, p. 58. For a cup decorated with a
similar chased dotted-line scroll on the handle, see Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in
the Carl Kempe Collection, no. 136, pp. 208–09.
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An unusual silver-inlaid bronze incense
burner in the form of a scholar
17th–18th centuries
the scholar sits on a low throne, holding a
book in his right hand. He wears a robe,
with voluminous sleeves, inlaid in silver
wire with a dragon, clouds and leafy
scrolls, and an official’s hat and belt, also
inlaid in silver wire. The gentleman has a
long beard and moustache, and his features
bear a thoughtful expression. At the front of
the chair is a drawer for the incense with a
mask pull, and the back is pierced with
three roundels, for the release of the
incense smoke, which could also escape
through holes in the front of his robe.
Formerly in the collection of Charles Gillot
(1853–1903), and sold at Maître Paul
Chevallier, Paris, 8–13 February 1904,
lot 1006.
Simple bronze figures of scholars are
well documented, but this example, seated
on a throne which doubles as the incense
receptacle and burner, appears to be
very rare.
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An unusual bronze vase
standing on a conical foot ring, the low,
globular body rises to a slender, cylindrical
neck and terminates in an everted rim. The
vase is decorated with flowering prunus,
with chased details, rising from rockwork,
and with a classic scroll around the foot.
The base is incised with a three-character
mark, reading Yong bao yong (For use as a
treasure forever). The metal is a deep olive
tone, apart from a brighter area around the
neck where it has been handled.
A similar, although much smaller, example
is illustrated in Mowry, China’s Renaissance
in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection
of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100–1900,
no. 33, pp. 164–6, and is accompanied by
an interesting essay.
This pattern is, of course, well known on
Kangxi ceramics: see, for example, Gardner
Neill, The Communion of Scholars: Chinese
Art at Yale, no. 36, pp. 84–5; and Honey,
The Ceramic Art of China and Other
Countries of the Far East, pl. 121, in the
collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum.
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A fine gilt-bronze figure of a Buddhist acolyte
Late Ming dynasty
standing, leaning slightly forwards, with his hands held together before him. His head is tilted
upwards and his features bear a happy, smiling expression; his hair is cast in three topknots
with chased details and he wears an earring. He is dressed in long robes, tied about the chest
and waist, and a scarf, falling over his shoulders and around his arms to the ground; the edges
of the scarf and the back of the apron are chased with lotus flowers on a ring-punched ground,
and scrolls. Traces of original pigments remain to the head.
This acolyte is often known as Golden Boy, and is an attendant of Guanyin.
For a related gilt-bronze example, see d’Argencé, Chinese Korean and Japanese Sculpture,
The Avery Brundage Collection, no. 115, pp. 294–5, dated Song; and, for a Qing version, see
Palace Museum, 50 Selected Gems of Cultural Relics – newly collected in the Palace Museum
in the last fifty years, no. 168, pp. 130–1. Note also a large Song dynasty wood example
illustrated in Priest, Chinese Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pl. CXII, cat. no. 65.
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A rare gilt-bronze box and cover
Ming dynasty
made in imitation of a tixi lacquer example.
The domed box and cover are of circular
section and are cast with three large ruyishaped designs resembling pommel scrolls.
The interior is lacquered brownish-black.
A red lacquer example of this form is
illustrated in Dam-Mikkelsen and
Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in The
Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650–1800,
no. Edc47a, pp. 195–6.
23
An unusual gold-splashed bronze vase
18th century
Height: 6G in, 16.2 cm
of circular form, the sides flare slightly
towards the shoulder, which is set with two
simplified archaistic masks suspending
loose rings, turn inwards to a waisted neck
and end in a rolled lip. Archaistic motifs
decorate the vase: a narrow band of small
lotus lappet above a frieze of two pairs of
confronting serpents on a leiwen ground,
and four large hanging cicada blades. The
mellow coffee-brown surface is liberally
splashed with gold.
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24
A good gold-splashed bronze
incense burner
heavily cast and supported on a moulded
spreading foot ring, the compressed
globular body rises to an everted rim; two
lion-mask handles with chased details are
set on the sides. The mellow brown surface
is liberally splashed with gold. The base is
cast with an apocryphal Xuande mark within
a rectangular cartouche.
See Lin, Chinese Incense Burners:
Collection of Steven Hung & Lindy Chern,
no. 199, p. 146, for a similar gold-splashed
example; and Huang, Jinyu Qingyan,
nos. 195 and 196, p. 250, for plain bronze
versions.
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26
A fine bronze model of a mythical beast
Late Ming dynasty
A fine and unusual parcel-gilt bronze
incense burner
17th century
Diameter: 4I in, 11.5 cm
heavily cast and powerfully modelled,
the lion-like animal is depicted walking,
with its head slightly turned over its left
shoulder. It has a single horn, incised
eyebrows, ruff, beard and hair on its legs,
small ears, large eyes, an open mouth
revealing its tongue and teeth, and a long
curling tail. The bronze has a mellow
reddish-brown surface.
Mowry discusses such late Ming small
bronze mythical beasts, that were used as
paperweights, in China’s Renaissance in
Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection
of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100–1900,
nos. 45–7, pp. 200–02.
standing on three tapering feet, the vessel
has S-shaped sides, and two loop handles
are set on the rim. The sides are decorated
with Bo gu (One Hundred Antiques), gilt
and with chased details, reserved on a
ring-matted ground. A square gilt cartouche
on the base is incised with four characters,
reading Hui wen tang cang (Collection of
Gracious Literacy or Collection of Zhao
Crown Hall).
The term Huiwen was originally used for a
type of crown worn by King Wuling in the
Zhou period state of Zhao.
A cylindrical censer with very similar
decoration is illustrated in Lin, Chinese
Incense Burners: Collection of Steven Hung
& Lindy Chern, no. 140, p. 166. Note also
a circular bronze box decorated with the
Hundred Antiques, in the Ji Zhen Zhai
collection, in Fang, Treasures of the
Chinese Scholar, p. 100.
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27
A very fine, rare and important Vietnamese solid gold basin
Nguyen dynasty, 19th century
with very slightly rounded sides and a wide, flat rim ending in a rolled lip. The centre is
chased and engraved with a confronting, scaly, five-clawed dragon amid clouds against a
dense, ring-matted ground. The rim is similarly decorated with four cartouches, each
containing a running dragon, reserved against a floral diaper, and all against fine ring-matting.
The underside of the rim bears an inscription, reading: “Gold: 8.5 tuoi, weight: 35.68 taels.
Crafted by artisan Han and artisan Tu on royal order.”
By repute taken from the imperial city of Hue in 1887, then in the collection of Ralph Marty
and sold in 1926.
Tuoi is a reference to the gold’s purity, in this instance 85%, and the dish weighs
1358.704 grams.
The dish would have been placed on an altar, filled with water by an attendant, and used
by the king for ceremonial washing.
The system of craft workshops implemented by the Nguyen Lords (1558–1789) in Cochinchina
followed that of the Le dynasty (1428–1789) in the north. However, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, Cochinchina was wealthy in comparison with northern Tonkin, and the
handicraft units (tuong cuc ) were an active element of the Nguyen Lords’ armed forces. The
craft workshop structure was maintained and strengthened during the Nguyen dynasty
(1802–1945), with many dozens of units under the direct control of the court. King Minh Mang
(1820–40) established The Gold and Silversmith Unit in 1834. Teams of craftsmen were
recruited throughout the country to support the master craftsmen who were in permanent
service to the king. Having completed six months’ service each year, the teams were free to
return to their village. There were also private handicraft units that, having been granted a
licence by the provincial head, provided services on a contractual basis.
Many of the famous goldsmiths working in the royal capital of Hue came from Ke Mon
village. Oral tradition has it that the jewellery trade in Ke Mon started in the second half of the
eighteenth century. The Hue historian, Nguyen Huu Thong, writes that most gold and silver
products made for the king and elite during the Nguyen dynasty were crafted in Ke Mon.
The gold ore was brought from the mines and treated in the village.
After the signing of the Treaty of Saigon in 1862 between the French government and King Tu
Duc (1847–83), the Vietnamese had to pay reparations, and Tu Duc ordered the gold in the
kingdom to be paid into the treasury to meet these obligations. Following the intervention of
the French, the workshops of the handicraft units were disrupted, and the goldsmiths’ units
ceased operations in 1862. When French troops occupied the imperial city in 1885, there was
looting of cultural material, including gold objects.
It is highly probable that this basin was made at Ke Mon village. Because of the closure of
the goldsmiths’ units, the end-date for this vessel is 1862. It is not possible to be more
precise about dating or to know which king ordered its manufacture, but Tu Duc would fit
the historical facts.
We are indebted to Kerry Nguyen-Long for providing the research and background information
on this dish, and to Dr Tran Du Anh Son for translating the inscription.
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28
An unusual pewter tray
17th century
of circular form with flared sides decorated
with a horizontal rib on the outside. The
well is incised with a lady and a gentleman
seated on soft-matted stools, playing flutes
in a garden setting with a large phoenix,
holding lingzhi fungus in its beak, flying
amid clouds before the sun. To one side is
a table with a qin, an incense burner and
vases upon it, beside a large rock and a
banana tree; to the other side is leafy
bamboo and in the foreground are further
vases, rocks and a table. The decoration is
enhanced by washes of copper and brass
and the rim is edged with brass.
A box and cover of similar size, illustrated
in Etains de Chine: Collection Ena et Henry
Maertens de Noordhout, no. 5, pp. 26–7,
bears similar decoration.
This type and style of subject is well known
on porcelain of the seventeenth century.
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30
A good pottery jar
Height: 8D in, 21 cm
A glazed pottery handled bowl
Eastern Han dynasty
with a globular body spreading towards the
flat base with a neatly cut bevelled edge,
a waisted neck and an everted, slanted lip.
The charcoal-grey body is decorated with
burnished bands and two narrow friezes of
chevrons around the shoulder.
standing on a slightly tapering solid foot,
the sides of the U-shaped vessel contract
slightly below the everted rim. A handle
carved in the form of a stylised dragon’s
head is set to one side. Apart from three
spur marks on the rim that reveal the red
earthenware body, the vessel is covered
with a deep olive-green glaze.
This dating is consistent with Oxford
Authentication’s report C108c35.
Formerly in the collection of
Hugo Munsterberg.
This type of dark grey ceramic with
burnished decoration has been found in
the excavations of the ancient city and
royal tombs of the state of Zhongshan of
the Warring States period: see, for example,
Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics,
Tomb of Cuo, The King of the Zhongshan
State in the Warring States Period,
pls. 19–24.
Very similar examples are illustrated in The
Charles B. Hoyt Collection, nos. 13 and 14,
p. 4; and in White and Otsuka, Pathways
to the Afterlife: Early Chinese Art from the
Sze Hong Collection, no. 27, pp. 66–7.
For similarly decorated vessels of different
forms, see The Ceramic Art of China,
no. 12, pl. 10; and Krahl, Chinese Ceramics
from the Meiyintang Collection,
Vol. Three (1), no. 1099, p. 88.
41
The animal’s head bears a remarkable
resemblance to that of the Chinese alligator.
For similar examples with less exaggerated
handles, see Ayers, Chinese Ceramics:
The Koger Collection, no. 5, p. 25;
The Charles B. Hoyt Collection, no. 45,
p. 12; Lau, Spirit of Han, no. 125, p. 134;
Sato, Chinese Ceramics: A Short History,
fig. 34, p. 28; and Valenstein, A Handbook
of Chinese Ceramics, no. 42, p. 51.
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A rare glazed pottery lamp
Late Northern dynasties, circa late 6th century
the very slightly waisted cylindrical vessel has a wide, sloping flange rim, incised with a leaf
scroll, and is supported on a tall stem. The upper part of the stem is applied with three figures
of seated lion-like animals with bushy eyebrows and long manes; the lower part is bell-shaped
and pierced with three shaped cartouches separated by applied rosettes. With the exception of
a patch inside the vessel and the interior of the stem, a glossy deep green glaze, degraded and
crackled in places and with oily iridescence on the rim, covers the reddish earthenware.
This dating is consistent with Oxford Authentication’s report C106n48.
The closest comparison to this rare vessel is a lamp with green and brown glazes and sculptural
felines in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Valenstein, A Handbook of
Chinese Ceramics, no. 48, pp. 54–5, and again in Valenstein, Cultural Convergence in the
Northern Qi Period: A Flamboyant Chinese Ceramic Container, fig. 49, p. 116.
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A pair of glazed pottery horses and riders
Sui or early Tang dynasty
Height: 12K in, 32.1 cm
the horses are ridden by an elegant young
lady and a gentleman. She wears a highwaisted robe, falling in narrow pleats, and
a shawl over her shoulders; her features
are well defined and she has an elaborate
hairstyle. The gentleman wears a robe with
lapels over boots and his hair is bound in
a cloth headdress; he looks upward, as if a
bird of prey is about to land on his raised
right arm. The horses stand four-square on
pottery bases; they have characteristically
large heads, arching necks, long tails and
incised manes. They wear bridles, and saddles
with saddlecloths, his with a tiger-skin
pattern, and stirrups. The cream
earthenware is covered with straw glaze
and bears the remains of original cold
pigments.
Authentication’s report C108p52.
An early Tang example excavated in
Luoyang in 1990 is illustrated in Yu and
Zhou, Luo Yang Tao Yong, p. 284; and note
also Baker, Appeasing the Spirits: Sui and
Tang Dynasty Tomb Sculpture From The
Schloss Collection, nos. 23–8, pp. 26–7,
where it is noted that similar figures were
found in the tomb, dated 657, of Zhang
Shigui at Liquan, Shaanxi province.
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33
An unusual painted pottery figure
of a foreign groom
Tang dynasty
standing on a pottery base, his right arm
is raised as if holding a rope. He wears a
closely fitting, round-necked, knee-length
robe, tied at the waist, and boots. His hair
is incised to simulate plaiting, and twisted
into a coil about his head. His round face
is very well depicted with wide cheeks,
closed eyes with wrinkles to the sides, a
broad, small nose and full lips. The buffgrey pottery bears the remains of original
pigments.
Authentication’s report C108p74.
For related figures, but all glazed and
wearing tunics with wide lapels, see
Caroselli, The Quest for Eternity: Chinese
Ceramic Sculptures from the People’s
Republic of China, no. 65, p. 132, a slightly
larger example excavated in 1971 from the
tomb of Prince Zhanghuai in Qian county,
Shaanxi province, and now in the Qianling
Museum, Shaanxi province; Schloss,
Ming-Ch’i: Clay Figures Reflecting Life in
Ancient China, no. 78, in the collection of
the Brooklyn Museum; and Treasures of
Chang’an: Capital of the Silk Road, no. 72,
pp. 194–5, a smaller example unearthed in
1960 from the tomb of Princess Yongtai in
Qian county, Shaanxi province, and now
in the collection of the Shaanxi Historical
Museum.
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35
An unusual stoneware jar
Tang dynasty
Height: 8B in, 20.6 cm
An unusual sancai-glazed pottery ewer
Tang dynasty
supported on a solid foot with a bevelled
edge, the sides flare steeply to a high shoulder,
curve inwards to a short, waisted neck and
terminate in a rolled, unglazed rim; two
loop handles are applied to the shoulder.
The buff stoneware body is covered with
translucent olive-green glaze, falling
unevenly well short of the foot, suffused
with large splashes of milky-blue.
supported on a conical foot ring with a
neatly bevelled edge, the sides round to
a straight, thickened waist, then curve at
the shoulder to an upright mouth. A short,
cylindrical spout is set on the shoulder.
The interior is glazed amber and the
exterior is splashed with blue, amber
and green glazes, stopping in a neat line
at the waist to reveal the fine cream
earthenware body.
Authentication’s report C108j64.
This type of jar was made at the Huangdao
kiln in Jia county, Henan province, which
was discovered in 1964.
For a very similar example, see Porcelain of
the Jin and Tang Dynasties: The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum, no. 175, p. 190; and note also
White and Otsuka, Pathways to the
Afterlife: Early Chinese Art from the Sze
Hong Collection, fig. 41a, p. 93, where it is
noted that “There is evidence that at least
some of the splashed glazes were applied
while the jar was upside-down.”
This dating is consistent with Oxford’s
report 766t14.
This particularly rare example is obviously
based on a metal original, as such spouted
vessels are usually globular in shape: see,
for example, Krahl, Chinese Ceramics
from the Meiyintang Collection, Vol. One,
no. 261, p. 151. Note a covered box in
The Charles B. Hoyt Collection, no. 120,
p. 31, also of metal shape and with a very
similar glaze.
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A pair of glazed pottery vases
Liao dynasty
each ovoid vessel flares slightly towards the foot, with a recessed base, and has a tapering,
cylindrical neck, issuing from a moulded phoenix head, and a cup-shaped mouth with a foliate
rim. The only other adornment is pairs of incised lines. Apart from the bases that reveal the
buff pottery, the vases are covered in white slip and crackled amber glaze.
This dating is consistent with Oxford’s report 766e81.
It appears to be extremely rare to find a pair of such vases, and this example is particularly
well matched.
For single vessels, see Egami, Three-Colour Ware, no. 67, in the collection of the Liaoning
Provincial Museum; Medley, T’ang Pottery and Porcelain, pl. 131, p. 135, in the collection of
the Honolulu Academy of Arts; and Shen, Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China’s Liao Empire
(907–1125), no. 106, pp. 338–9, from the walled city of Qingzhou, Suoboriga Township, Balin
Right Banner and now in the Museum of Balin Right Banner, and note the interesting discourse
on the origins of these vases.
See also an example in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I): The Complete Collection of
Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 241, p. 266, with the more usual type of glaze that stops
well short of the foot.
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38
A small porcelain cup
Jiajing mark and period
Diameter: 2K in, 6.7 cm
A rare porcelain ewer
Ming dynasty, 16th century
the U-shaped cup is supported on a slightly
tapering foot ring. The sides are painted in
underglaze blue with two pairs of fish
swimming amid waterweeds, and the well
with a five-petalled blossom. The concave
base bears the six-character mark of the
Jiajing Emperor, and of the period.
the globular vessel has a recessed base, a
short, waisted neck and a thickened lip.
An S-form spout is set to one side. The
ewer is freely painted in underglaze blue
with a broad frieze of seven Daoist figures
on a terrace; several carry gourds, one a
fly-whisk, one a fan, one reads a scroll and
one carries books; they are dressed in loose
robes. Six large lappets filled with various
diapers encircle the shoulder, and another
six, alternately filled with wan diaper and
half lotus blooms, surround the foot. Leaf
scrolls decorate the spout and flower scrolls
the neck. The shoulder is pierced with four
holes for the attachment of silver mounts.
A very similar cup is illustrated in our
Winter 2006 catalogue, no. 47, p. 50.
For a stem cup with similar fish decoration,
see Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the
British Museum, no. 9:5, p. 218.
Formerly in the collection of the Norton
Museum of Art, Florida.
A closely related ewer in the collection of
the Capital Museum, Beijing, is illustrated
in Shoudu Bowuguan Cang Ci Xuan,
no. 131, p. 137. Note also a blue and
white incense burner of the Longqing period,
dated 1571, bearing similar decoration,
illustrated in Wu, Earth Transformed:
Chinese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, pp. 128–9.
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A porcelain rouleau vase
Chongzhen period
Height: 18I in, 47 cm
of cylindrical form, slightly tapering towards the base, with a flaring mouth. The sides are
painted in shades of underglaze blue with a soldier, wearing layered robes, carrying a bow.
He is accompanied by three attendants, wearing baggy tunics and trousers: one carries a
large lotus leaf, one a lantern and the third drops three cash, all in a rock- and plant-strewn
landscape, with steep hills amid clouds in the distance. The neck is painted with pendent
leaves. Bands of finely incised lines surround the foot and shoulder.
Formerly in a European private collection.
This type of rouleau can be precisely dated by comparison with similar vases bearing
inscriptions: see, for example, Kilburn, Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, no. 60,
dated 1637; and Riddell, Dated Chinese Antiquities 600–1650, fig. 100, p. 112, dated 1638.
For similar vases decorated with figures, see du Boulay, Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese
Ceramics, fig. 4, p. 194, originally the property of King William IV; Emerson, Chen and Gates,
Porcelain Stories from China to Europe, pl. 10.3, pp. 116–17; and White, Chen and Wang,
Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler
Collections: Beauty’s Enchantment, no. 24, pp. 112–13.
53
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An unusual porcelain table screen
Kangxi period
Height of screen: 7N in, 19.8 cm
of rectangular form with thickened rims.
The screen is painted in the famille-verte
palette with three boys playing on a terrace
to one side, and with flowers, a rock and
butterflies to the other. Green and yellow
diaper borders surround both scenes. In a
carved and pierced wood stand.
A very similar screen with an identical
diaper border is illustrated in Kerr and
Allen, The World in Colours: An exhibition
of ceramics with coloured decoration dated
from 700 to 1920 belonging to members
of the Oriental Ceramic Society, no. 108,
p. 56.
41
A good wucai porcelain jar and cover
Shunzhi period
Height: 13N in, 34.9 cm
the jar has a wide shoulder and a very
slightly flaring, tall neck, and spreads
towards the flat base with a bevelled edge.
The domed cover has an onion-form knop.
The vessel is painted in overglaze enamels
and underglaze blue with ladies on a terrace.
The main figure is seated and watches a
dancer accompanied by three musicians,
playing a flute, a sheng (pipe harmonica)
and a drum. She is attended by two young
women holding fans, and another carrying
a wrapped qin. A large rock and a banana
tree mark the end of the scene. A frieze of
cracked ice surrounds the shoulder, and the
neck is painted with rocks and camellia
sprays. The cover is decorated with three
young boys playing in a rocky landscape.
For similar examples, see Cox, The Book of
Pottery and Porcelain, Vol. I, pl. 145, fig. b,
in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York; He, Chinese Ceramics:
The New Standard Guide, no. 644, p. 301;
Jakobsen and Sørensen, Empire of the
Dragons: Chinese Art Treasures through
4000 years from Hong Kong, Sweden and
Denmark, no. 135, p. 125; Jörg, Chinese
Ceramics in the Collection of the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and
Qing Dynasties, no. 75, pp. 84–5;
Setterwall, Fogelmarck and Gyllensvärd,
The Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm,
p. 163, in the Yellow Room; and Zhang,
Complete Collection of Ceramic Art
Unearthed in China, Vol. I, no. 230, in
the collection of the Beijing Institute of
Cultural Relics.
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A porcelain brush pot (bitong )
Kangxi period, dated by ink inscription
1706
of cylindrical form with a wide, concave
foot and a small, recessed base glazed
white. The vessel is painted with a spray
of flowers, leaves, bamboo and rocks, and
butterflies, in the famille-verte palette, and
with a leaf and a seal mark, reading Linju
(Forest dweller) in iron-red. An unglazed
ring on the foot bears an ink inscription
dated the sixth month of the forty-fifth year
of Kangxi (corresponding to 1706).
A similar brush pot also bearing an ink
inscription, dated 1720, is illustrated in
our Winter 2006 exhibition, no. 60, p. 61,
and also in Wiesner, Chinesische Keramik:
Meisterwerke aus Privatsammlungen,
no. 131, p. 179.
For further examples, see Li, Mingmo
Qingchu Ci Bitong Bianwei Shizhen,
pp. 82–3; and Porcelains in Polychrome
and Contrasting Colours: The Complete
Museum, no. 89, p. 97.
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A pair of porcelain dishes
Kangxi period
Diameter: 13N in, 35 cm
with slightly flared rims and supported on
tapering, channelled feet. The dishes are
painted in the famille-verte palette, each
with a central Buddhist lion, a wang (king)
character on its forehead, and a brocade
ball, surrounded by a pair of birds,
butterflies, stylised lotus and shaped lappets
filled with half blooms, all enclosed by a
border of four shaped cartouches of flowers
reserved against a diaper ground embellished
with more flowers. The exterior sides are
painted with simple tied flower scrolls,
and the base with a lingzhi fungus within
double circles in underglaze blue.
A dish decorated in famille-verte enamels
with a similar Buddhist lion and a lingzhi
mark to the base is illustrated in Jörg,
Jan Menze van Diepen Stichting:
A Selection from the Collection of Oriental
Ceramics, no. 70, pp. 106–07.
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45
A pair of porcelain vases (meiping )
Ming dynasty, late 15th century
A pair of biscuit models of parrots
Kangxi period
supported on broad, shallow feet, the
vessels have elegantly waisted sides rising
to globular shoulders and tapering mouths
with thickened lips. They are covered in
milk-white glaze.
seated on pierced and moulded rockwork
bases. The parrots have hooked beaks,
protruding eyes, neatly folded wings and
clawed, scaly feet; the heads and bodies
with incised details. The birds are decorated
on the biscuit with emerald-green, black
and yellow enamels.
Formerly in the Koger collection, and one
illustrated in Ayers, Chinese Ceramics:
The Koger Collection, no. 53, pp. 76–7.
A related pair of white meiping, with taller
necks and slightly more waisted bodies,
from the Hongwu period, excavated in
the 1960s from a tomb in Rugao county,
Jiangsu province, and now in the Nantong
City Museum, is illustrated in Zhang,
Complete Collection of Ceramic Art
Unearthed in China, Vol. 7, no. 180,
p. 180.
For related figures of parrots, see Ayers,
The Chinese Porcelain Collection of Marie
Vergottis, nos. 70–2, pp. 94–5; du Boulay,
Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese
Ceramics, figs. 2–4, p. 299; Hobson,
The Eumorfopoulos Collection, Vol. V,
no. E182, pl. XXXIV; Sargent, The Copeland
Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic
Figures, no. 38, pp. 92–3; and Setterwall,
Fogelmarck and Gyllensvärd, The Chinese
Pavilion at Drottningholm, p. 163, in the
Yellow Room and originally in the collection
of Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Sweden
(1636–1715).
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A fine and rare soft-paste porcelain vase
18th century
delicately potted and of ovoid form with
a recessed base, a waisted neck and an
everted rim. The sides are decorated in
low relief with two large sprays of lingzhi
fungus, with incised details. The ivorywhite glaze is densely crackled.
Formerly in the collection of H. M. Knight,
no. 137, and in an American private
collection.
Exhibited: Oosterse Schatten, 1954,
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, no. 291.
Honey illustrates a very similar vase in
Guide to the Later Chinese Porcelain
Periods of K’ang Hsi, Yung Cheng, and
Ch’ien Lung, fig. c, pl. 1.
47
An unusual soft-paste porcelain vase
18th century
based on an archaic jade cong, with a
square-section body, a circular foot and a
tapering, circular neck. Each corner of the
sides of the vase is decorated with four
stylised trigrams. The vase is painted in
vivid underglaze blue with large scrolling
blossoms to the central vertical panels on
the sides and scrolling small blooms to the
trigram panels. A floral diaper above pendent
trefoils and pearls surrounds the neck, and
a narrow diaper borders the foot.
This form of vase is more often found
decorated in monochrome glazes and is
rare in underglaze blue, but for three
smaller cong-shaped blue and white vases,
see Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain & Works
of Art in China, pl. LX, pp. 100– 01.
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48
49
A stoneware bowl
A good porcelain vase
18th century
the rounded sides rise from a recessed base
to an inverted mouth with a rolled rim. A
thick turquoise glaze covers the inside, and
on the outside a design of a leafy flower
spray in yellow and turquoise is repeated
three times on an aubergine ground. The
stoneware body is revealed on the foot rim,
and the base is glazed aubergine.
after an archaic bronze wine vessel (gu),
the cylindrical vase has a swollen waist, a
spreading foot and an everted galleried rim.
The waist is carved with four panels of leafy
peony, separated by vertical bracket flanges,
between bands of upright and pendent
banana leaves. The outside and inside
of the neck are covered with a turquoise
glaze, and a smear of translucent glaze
covers the base.
lot 973.
For similar fahua-type bowls, see HarrisonHall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum,
nos. 13:29–30, p. 424; Hayashiya and
Trubner, Chinese Ceramics from Japanese
Collections: T’ang through Ming Dynasties,
no. 48, p. 91; Medley, The Chinese Potter:
A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics,
fig. 170, also illustrated in Dubosc,
Exhibition of Chinese Art, no. 702;
Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese
Ceramics, pl. 89, p. 144, in the collection
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York; and Wood, Chinese Glazes,
p. 217, in the collection of the Victoria
and Albert Museum.
An identical vase is illustrated in Scott,
Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing
Monochrome Wares in the Percival David
Foundation of Chinese Art, no. A566, pl. IX.
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50
An unusual relief-decorated porcelain vase
Yongzheng period
of square section and standing on a spreading foot, the vase has flaring sides, narrow
shoulders, a flaring neck and a galleried rim, and is painted in rose-verte enamels. The body
and neck bear applied decoration of Bo gu (One Hundred Antiques), and the foot and shoulder
are painted with shaped cartouches of flowers reserved against a dense floral ground. Bands of
key-fret and small upright petals decorate the base of the neck, and the rim is also painted with
key-fret. The recessed base bears ink traces of Chinese characters.
Du Boulay illustrates a vase of almost identical form with relief moulded figures, dated Kangxi,
in The Taft Museum: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, no. 1931.92, pp. 648–9.
For similarly decorated porcelain, see Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain & Works of Art in China,
pl. LXXXIII, a famille-rose mallet vase, dated Yongzheng; Lam, Ethereal Elegance: Porcelain
Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang Collection, no. 120, pp. 340–1, a massive
Yongzheng mark and period vase; and Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours:
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 143, p. 156, a Kangxi
mallet vase.
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A pair of porcelain wine cups
Tongzhi mark and period
of inverted bell shape and standing on very
slightly tapering foot rings. The sides of
each are painted in bright iron-red with two
running, scaly, five-clawed dragons, one
facing forwards and one back, chasing
flaming pearls above a band of crested
waves. The bases are painted in underglaze
blue with the six-character mark of the
Tongzhi Emperor, and of the period.
Similar single examples are illustrated in
Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911, fig. 110, p. 125,
in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum; and in Scott, Elegant Form and
Harmonious Decoration: Four Dynasties of
Jingdezhen Porcelain, no. 196, p. 169, in
the collection of the Percival David
Foundation of Chinese Art. For a single
Qianlong version, see Xu, Treasures in
the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of
the Qing Dynasty, p. 269; and for a pair
of Xuantong cups, see Krahl, Chinese
Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection,
Vol. Two, no. 789, pp. 156–7.
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enamel
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A fine and rare painted enamel screen
18th century
Width of panel: 8I in, 21.5 cm
of rectangular form and painted in the
famille-rose palette. To one side are
European figures in a bucolic setting with
European buildings, including a church,
in the distance. Three European gentlemen
are seated at a table, while a young man
walks a dog, accompanied by another
youth. The other side is delicately painted
with a pair of egrets in a lotus pond, millet
and aster. A seven-character inscription
reads: Tui feng xian kan shui zhong ou
(Gently pushing aside the lotus pad allows
one leisurely to watch the egrets swim on
the water).
The words for egret, lotus and reeds
represent the rebus Lulu lianke (May you
pass your exams one after another).
It is suggested in Jenyns and Watson,
Chinese Art: The Minor Arts II, p. 244, that
the soft colouring of panels such as this one
is reminiscent of European later eighteenth
century watercolour and gouache painting.
For enamels painted with similar foreign
figures and landscapes, see Arapova,
Chinese Painted Enamels, no. 241, pls. 166
and 167, a vase; Gillingham, Chinese
Painted Enamels, no. 10, p. 17, no. 14,
p. 21, and no. 118, p. 88, all panels; and
Lloyd Hyde, Chinese Painted Enamels from
Private and Museum Collections, no. 4,
p. 12, four plaques from the Mottahedeh
collection, and no. 28, p. 24. Note also
Gillingham, op cit, no. 9, p. 17, a panel
painted with a similarly delicate spray of
flowers and grasses.
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A painted enamel cup and saucer
18th century
Diameter of saucer: 4P in, 12.4 cm
the cup of U-shape with a slightly everted
lip and, together with the saucer, decorated
in the famille-rose palette on a bright yellow
ground. The cup is painted with a running,
scaly, five-clawed dragon on waves amid
clouds chasing a flaming pearl, and the
interior and base each with a phoenix
medallion. The saucer is painted with a
similar confronting dragon to the interior,
with a frieze of four Shou (longevity)
medallions alternating with paired stylised
geometric dragons to the walls; the exterior
with two running dragons chasing flaming
pearls, and the base with a medallion of
two scrolling phoenixes.
For larger bowls with the same decoration,
see Lu, Li and Wan, Life of the Emperors
and Empresses in the Forbidden City, p. 57;
and Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum,
The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by
Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: The
Enamel Volume, no. 2, p. 38. Gillingham
illustrates a very similar saucer in Chinese
Painted Enamels, no. 49, p. 46.
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71
54
A pair of painted enamel dishes
18th century
with rounded sides supported on broad
foot rings and painted in the famille-rose
palette. Each is painted with a spray of
various flowers, butterflies and a bat within
a shaped border of scrolling flowers on a
bright yellow ground. The sides bear four
shaped cartouches of butterflies, fruits and
flowers, alternating with small dragon
roundels, against a pink diaper ground.
Five bats (Wu fu) about a central phoenix
in shades of blue on a yellow ground,
enclosed by a formal pink scroll, adorn the
base. The outside walls are painted with
another five bats (Wu fu) amid scrolling
lotus between borders of formal pink and
blue classic scrolls.
Wu fu (The Five Blessings) are longevity,
wealth, health, love of virtue and a
peaceful death.
Gillingham illustrates a related, slightly
smaller dish in Chinese Painted Enamels,
no. 74, p. 64.
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56
A fine painted enamel dish
18th century
A large painted enamel tray
18th century
with rounded sides standing on a broad
foot ring. The interior is painted in the
famille-rose palette with a large spray of
fruits and flowers, including chrysanthemum,
peach, finger citron, camellia, rose, pink
and prunus, all enclosed by a narrow frieze
of scrolling flowers on a yellow ground.
The interior walls are decorated with five
bats (Wu fu) and clouds against a pink
diaper ground, all beneath a formal blue
classic scroll. The outside walls are painted
with a broad floral scroll above bands of
blue and pink classic scroll, and the base
with a phoenix medallion in shades of blue
on a yellow ground.
with eight lobes and rounded sides, and
painted in the famille-rose palette. The
interior is decorated with a magnolia tree,
crab apple, peony, lily and other flowers
emerging from rocks, enclosed within an
elaborate border of lingzhi fungus scrolls.
The sides are painted with a narrow pink
border beneath four shaped cartouches of
floral sprays alternating with fruit-shaped
panels of various flowers in pink, all
reserved against a formal floral scroll.
The base is painted with flowers and fruits,
including peach, pomegranate and finger
citron, the San duo (Three Abundances),
on a white ground, and the exterior sides
with cracked ice.
Formerly in the collection of Alfred and
Ivy Clark.
Wu fu (The Five Blessings) are longevity,
wealth, health, love of virtue and a
peaceful death.
Arapova illustrates a dish with a similar
main design in Chinese Painted Enamels,
no. 165a, pl. 109.
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57
75
58
A cloisonné enamel vase
17th century
The foot is decorated with flying horses
(haima) sporting amid waves. The rims and
edges are gilt.
A cloisonné enamel censer
after an archaic bronze fanghu, with a
square section, a spreading foot, wellrounded sides and a waisted neck; the
shoulders are applied with two gilt-bronze
lion-mask handles suspending loose rings.
The body is decorated with rabbits to one
face, a peacock and another bird to the
second, and another peacock to the third,
all these amid flowers and rocks, and with
a crane in a lotus pond to the fourth. The
neck is decorated with a frieze of upright
leaves against scrolling flowers beneath
pendent cloud scrolls around the rim, the
shoulder with scrolling lotus, and the lower
part of the body with scattered blooms on
a ground of ruyi-shaped cloisons, all in
coloured enamels on a turquoise ground
and separated by narrow friezes of cloud
and leaf designs on lapis-blue grounds.
For similar examples, see Avitabile, Die
Ware aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische
und japanische Cloisonné- und ChampleveArbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, no. 40, p. 87;
Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné, The
Pierre Uldry Collection, no. 158; Brown,
Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection,
pl. 25; Chen, Enamel Ware in the Ming and
Ch’ing Dynasties, no. 22, pp. 90–1, in the
collection of the National Palace Museum,
Taipei; Garner, Chinese and Japanese
Cloisonné Enamels, pl. 53; and Zhongguo
Meishu Fenlei Quanji: Zhongguo Jinyin
Boli Falangqi Quanji, Vol. 5, no. 190,
p. 161, in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
standing on three gilt cabriole legs, the
circular-section vessel rises steeply from
a flat base and flares towards the rim;
two gilt-bronze lion masks are set on
the shoulder. The vessel is decorated in
with six bold scrolling lotus to the sides,
four lotus to the base and a scrolling floral
band to the inner rim.
For similar examples, see Avitabile, Die
Ware aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische
und japanische Cloisonné- und ChampleveArbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, no. 16, pp. 60–1;
Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné, The
Pierre Uldry Collection, nos. 116 and 117;
and Lin, Censers, Incense Burners and
Hand Warmers: Wellington Wang
Collection, no. 118, p. 148.
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59
A fine cloisonné enamel panel
18th century
16K x 19G in, 42.2 x 49.2 cm
of rectangular form and decorated in
coloured enamels. Two scholars and an
attendant, carrying a qin, walk up a
mountain path towards a complex of
buildings partly hidden behind mountains
and low clouds. Nine red-capped cranes
are depicted: some on rocks, some beside
water, one perched high in a pine tree,
and one in flight. The hills are strewn with
trees of various kinds, including pine and
wutong. In a hardwood frame.
lot 1171.
A very similar panel is illustrated in
Chinesische Kunst, no. 783, p. 293. For
related examples, see Avitabile, Die Ware
aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische und
japanische Cloisonné- und ChamplevéArbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, no. 95,
pp. 168–9; Brinker and Lutz, Chinese
Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection,
nos. 299 and 311; Metal-bodied Enamel
Ware: The Complete Collection of Treasures
of the Palace Museum, nos. 131 and 132,
pp. 136–7; and Zhongguo Meishu Fenlei
Quanji: Zhongguo Jinyin Boli Falangqi
Quanji, Vol. 6, nos. 104–11, pp. 79–80,
all in the collection of the Palace Museum,
Beijing.
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60
A cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze
incense burner and cover
17th century
the hemispherical censer is supported on
three gilt-bronze legs, cast and chased in
the form of phoenixes, and has an everted
gilt-bronze rim set with two loop handles.
The vessel is decorated in coloured
enamels on a greenish-turquoise ground
with three archaistic monster masks, one
centred over each leg, and with scrolling
lotus to the base. The gilt-bronze cover is
pierced with a design of two phoenixes
against scrolling and is surmounted by a
globular knop.
For related censers, see Getz, Catalogue of
the Avery Collection of Ancient Chinese
Cloisonnés, no. 8; Lin, Chinese Incense
Burners: Collection of Steven Hung &
Lindy Chern, no. 14, p. 46; and Metalbodied Enamel Ware: The Complete
Museum, no. 44, p. 45.
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79
61
An unusual cloisonné enamel box
and cover
Kangxi period
with eight bracket lobes, straight sides
and a very slightly domed cover. The box
is decorated in dark green, yellow, tomatored, lapis-blue and white enamels on a
turquoise ground with clouds and the Eight
Trigrams about a central yin–yang symbol
to the cover, and with clouds to the sides.
The rims, interior and base are gilt.
Illustrated: Spink & Son, The Minor Arts
of China, London, 1983, no. 74.
An identical box in the collection of the
Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in
Zhongguo Meishu Fenlei Quanji: Zhongguo
Jinyin Boli Falangqi Quanji, Vol. 5,
no. 178, p. 150.
Note also a mid-sixteenth century box, with
a yin–yang symbol, in the Reid collection
and illustrated in Till and Swart, Antique
Chinese Cloisonné, no. 21.
62
An unusual bronze and cloisonné
enamel mirror
18th century
of rectangular form and decorated in
with two archaistic monster masks and
scrolling about a plain domed bronze knop.
The reflective side is now a mellow coffeebrown tone.
Cloisonné enamel mirrors are rare, but for
a circular example in the collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Chen,
Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing
Dynasties, no. 51, p. 129.
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63
64
A fine cloisonné enamel incense burner
Qianlong mark and period
An unusual cloisonné enamel vase
18th century
supported on three tapering legs ending in
gilt tips, the compressed globular body rises
to a waisted neck and ends in a gilt rim
from which two loop handles issue. The
exterior is enamelled in various colours
on a turquoise ground with scrolling lotus
and other flowers, and with cloud lappets
around the rim and feet. The base is inlaid
with a gilt cartouche incised with the
six-character mark of the Qianlong Emperor
in a line, and the commendation mark
qiang (strong or educated) below, and of
the period.
of oval section with a well-rounded body,
standing on a slightly flaring foot, and a
tapering neck set with two tubular handles.
The vase is enamelled in various colours
on a turquoise ground with four registers
of decoration, three of scrolling lotus and
one of upright leaves, separated by narrow
bands of leafy blossoms on a lapis-blue
ground. The handles are enamelled with
small scrolling blossoms, and the rims and
base are gilt.
For similar examples, see Brinker and Lutz,
Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry
Collection, no. 245; and Shenyang Imperial
Palace Museum, The Prime Cultural Relics
Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace
Museum: The Enamel Volume, no. 3,
pp. 114–15. Note also a censer with a
Qianlong commendation mark in Lin,
Chinese Incense Burners: Collection of
Steven Hung & Lindy Chern, no. 44.
A Qianlong mark and period vase of
similar form is illustrated in Zhang,
Colorful, Elegant, and Exquisite: A Special
Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from
Mr Robert Chang’s Collection, pp. 126–7.
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65
A very fine and rare imperial cloisonné enamel box and cover
Qianlong mark and period
of lobed circular section and domed form, and supported on a broad foot ring. The box and
cover are cast with ten vertical lobes and five horizontal, three to the cover and two to the
box. The cover is surmounted by a raised gilt-bronze globular finial rising from a band of gilt
lotus lappets. The turquoise ground is decorated in coloured enamels with bands of small
scrolling flowers, one flower to each of the rounded compartments formed by the lobing,
and the foot with circles and C-scrolls. The rims, interior and base are gilt, and the base is
engraved with the four-character mark of the Qianlong Emperor within a double square, and
of the period.
Formerly in an American private collection.
The quality of this box makes it an obvious product of the imperial workshops, and the shape
appears to be exceptionally rare.
A palace workshops painted enamel box and cover of similar form is illustrated in Ho and
Bronson, Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong,
no. 338, p. 260.
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66
A fine imperial cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze wall vase
Qianlong period
the sides flare to a wide shoulder, curve inwards to a waisted neck, decorated with three
horizontal gilt-bronze ribs, and end in an everted rim shaped as ruyi lappets. The neck is
set with two chased gilt-bronze scrolling leaf-form handles, and the vase is mounted on a
gilt-bronze base with four cloud-form feet beneath a band of raised, tied geometric scrollwork.
The vase is decorated with a shaped gilt-bronze panel, reserved against a cloud-decorated
lapis-blue enamel ground. The panel contains an imperial poem in black enamel, reading:
Amidst six opening jade-like petals, your stamens are golden
Your pure scent in truth surpasses the heaviness of musk and sandalwood
It is fitting that you should be known as “The Zen Monk”
In your profuse variety you make an arbour along the eaves.
Imperial composition on the gardenia.
Followed by two seal marks.
For imperial wall vases with inlaid gilt panels, see Chen, Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing
Dynasties, no. 46, p. 124, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Shenyang
Imperial Palace Museum, The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace
Museum: The Enamel Volume, no. 8, pp. 12–13; and Zhongguo Meishu Fenlei Quanji:
Zhongguo Jinyin Boli Falangqi Quanji, Vol. 6, no. 76, p. 55, in the imperial collection at the
Bishu Shanzhuang palace in Chengde.
85
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67
A very fine cloisonné enamel vase
First half of the 18th century
the elegant, ovoid body rises from a tall, spreading foot, with a gilt rim, to a high shoulder
and a waisted neck, and terminates in an upright gilt mouth. The body is finely enamelled in
various colours on a turquoise ground with scrolling lotus, the leaves tied in places, and four
large downward-facing bats, all between a band of tied lotus-filled cloud lappets around the
shoulder and a band of smaller cloud lappets above the foot. The neck is decorated with four
upright leaves, each filled with an archaistic taotie mask on a speckled greenish-blue ground,
reserved against lotus scroll, all beneath a band of small cloud lappets. The foot is decorated
similarly to the neck, with small pendent leaves.
Such vases that rely on form and decoration, without the need for gilt-bronze embellishment,
are rare.
A vase with very similar decoration is illustrated in Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The
Pierre Uldry Collection, no. 228, and discussed on p. 132, where it is noted that it “can be
assumed to date from the Yongzheng period; [its] colour palette still resembles that found on
Kangxi cloisonné objects, with the exception of the rose pink, more widely used by Yongzheng
times. This dating should apply especially to the large shouldered jar (no. 228) decorated
with stylised flowering scrolls, six ruyi-shaped, linked medallions, and dissolved motifs freely
adapted from ornamental schemes found on archaic bronzes.”
87
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An unusual cloisonné enamel table screen
18th century
Height of screen: 13K in, 34.7 cm
composed of two panels set into a wood frame. The main panel is enamelled in various
colours on a turquoise ground with a pair of spotted deer and a pair of red-crested cranes,
one in flight, beneath a large tree by a lake and steep hills. The smaller panel is decorated
with circular yellow fruits, possibly longan, borne on leafy stems. In a later pierced wood
stand.
Garner illustrates a related panel in Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, pl. 77.
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A rare cloisonné enamel cup and saucer
Late 18th century
Diameter of saucer: 5G in, 13.7 cm
the cup is of everted bell shape and stands
on a very slightly flaring foot; the interior
and rim are gilt. Two flat, fish-shaped
handles are set on the sides. The saucer has
curving sides and a flat rim and is supported
on a broad foot ring. The sides of the cup
and interior and underside of the saucer are
decorated with scrolling lotus in coloured
enamels on a white ground. Classic scrolls
on a lapis-blue ground decorate both feet.
The rims of the saucer are gilt.
See Metal-bodied Enamel Ware: The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Palace Museum, nos. 204–5, pp. 214–15,
for painted enamel cups and saucers of
similar form.
A cupstand with very similar decoration is
illustrated in Zhu, Ming Qing Guwan
Zhenshang, p. 160.
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jade &
hardstone
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An archaic jade figure of a hare
Western Zhou dynasty
the slim slab of jade is worked in the form
of a hare, with round incised eyes, large
ears, incised paws and a short tail; its nose
is pierced from one side. The semi-translucent
stone is a striated deep olive-green tone
with traces of cinnabar from burial.
Such hares are found in many of the
world’s most notable private and museum
collections: see, for example, Gu, The
Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed
in China, Vol. 14, p. 68, excavated from
tomb no. 1 at Rujiazhuang, Baoji, Shaanxi
province, and now in the Baoji Museum of
Bronze Relics; Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art
in Overseas Collections, Jade I, no. 27
(bottom), p. 27, in the collection of the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art;
Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Tomb of
Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, fig. 3, colour
pl. 30; Ip, Chinese Jade Carving, no. 44,
pp. 72–3; and Rawson, Chinese Jade from
the Neolithic to the Qing, fig. 1, p. 231, in
the collection of the British Museum.
71
A fine and rare archaic jade pendant
Late Shang or early Western Zhou dynasty
Height: 2N in, 7 cm
the slender slab of jade varies in thickness
and is in the form of a crouching, humanlike figure in profile; both sides are incised
with simple scroll patterns. The figure wears
a large headdress, pierced from both sides
for suspension, and has an upturned nose,
large eyes and a simply incised mouth. The
semi-translucent stone is a celadon-green
tone with slight alteration due to burial,
mainly to the headdress.
For related examples, see Institute of
Archaeology, CASS, Tomb of Lady Hao
at Yinxu in Anyang, pl. 132; Jadeware (I):
The Complete Collection of Treasures of
the Palace Museum, nos. 102 and 103,
pp. 122–3; and Rawson and Ayers, Chinese
Jade throughout the ages, no. 86.
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72
An archaic jade disc (bi )
Warring States period, 4th century BC
the slightly uneven slab of jade has narrow
flanges around the rim and central hole.
The surfaces are worked in relief with rows
of small bosses and finely incised lines.
The semi-translucent jade is a pale celadongreen tone with cloudy areas and some
parts altered to oatmeal through burial.
Formerly in the collection of Neil Phillips.
Rawson illustrates a similar example in
Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the
Qing, no. 15:1, p. 252, where she notes
that “Other examples with a similarly
irregular surface have come from a Chu
tomb at Henan Huaiyang Pingliangtai, from
tombs in western China and from the tombs
of the Zhongshan state at Pingshan xian in
Hebei province.”
For further similar discs, see Gu, The
Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed
in China, Vol. 5, p. 201, excavated from
Jincun, Luoyang, Henan province, and now
in the Henan Provincial Museum; and
Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the
Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein
Collection, fig. 1, pl. LXVII.
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An archaic jade dragon pendant
Spring and Autumn period
Length: 2D in, 5.7 cm
the upper surface of the slender slab of jade
is slightly convex. The stone is pierced and
worked in the form of a coiled dragon, and
simply embellished with incised single and
double lines and circles. The recessed areas
bear traces of cinnabar and the stone is a
semi-translucent greenish-white tone.
(Restored.)
Illustrated: Davidson, Jades of the
T. B. Walker Collection at the Walker
Art Center Minneapolis, Minnesota, pl. II,
no. 2.
For very similar examples, see BurkartBauer, Chinesische Jaden aus drei
Jahrtausenden, no. 73, pp. 66–7; Guojia
Wenwuju Guojia Wenwu Jianding
Weiyuanhui, Illustrated Important Chinese
Cultural Relics Ranking Standard: Jades,
no. 150, p. 149, excavated from tomb
no. 1657 at the Guo State Cemetery,
Shangcunling, Sanmenxia, Henan province;
and Liu, 100 Major Archaeological
Discoveries in the 20th Century in China,
“Cemetery of Marquises of State Jin at
Quwo – meditations on the Xia Ruins”,
p. 209 (bottom right).
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A good jade ewer
Ming dynasty
Length: 5B in, 13 cm
after an archaic bronze yi vessel, of broad
oval form, with a curved lip and a handle
in the form of a chilong, all standing on a
straight foot. The dragon rests its broad
muzzle on the lip, which it grasps with its
forepaws. It has a single curling horn, flaming
haunches, a long tail and an incised mane.
The sides of the vessel are worked in
contrasting low relief with two chilong
amid scrolling clouds, all beneath a band
of T-pattern. The semi-translucent stone is
an olive-grey tone with some deeper
charcoal inclusions.
A very similar example is illustrated in Xue,
Zhongguo Yuqi Shangjian, no. 568, p. 292;
and for related ewers, see Great National
Treasures of China: Masterworks in the
National Palace Museum, no. 70, p. 148;
and Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection
of Treasures of the Palace Museum,
no. 177, pp. 220–1.
75
A fine jade pouring vessel
17th century
in the form of a large, open lotus leaf, with
curling edges. A leaf, pod and flower are
worked in high relief on the base, their
stems tied to form a handle, and a smaller
leaf bends upwards to form the thumbpiece. The leaves are incised with veins.
The thinly worked, semi-translucent stone
is a greenish-white tone with cloudy grey
and oatmeal inclusions.
A related Southern Song dynasty example,
in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum, is illustrated in Clunas, “Jade
Carvers and their Customers in Ming
China”, fig. 1.
95
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76
A fine and rare jade boulder
of approximately oval section and irregular
form. A scholar, worked in high relief,
stands on a rocky promontory looking up at
the steep rock face; pine trees grow lower
down the hillside and some smaller plants
grow from the rocks, all in low relief. The
back is similarly worked with a waterfall
crashing down the steep cliff. The stone is
a celadon-green tone with russet markings
used intelligently within the design.
The inspiration for this type of boulder
depicting a gentleman of noble rank beside
a waterfall can be found in poetry and
painting: see, for example, a fan painting by
Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), or perhaps
one of his followers, in the collection of the
Museum of Far Eastern Art, Cologne, that
reflects a similar feeling of strength through
isolation, illustrated in Speiser, China: Spirit
and Society, pp. 200–01. Note also two
of the set of paintings, Album of the
Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes, illustrated
in Rawski and Rawson, China: The Three
Emperors 1662–1795, no. 167, pp. 248–9,
that depict the Yongzheng Emperor roleplaying as a poet watching a waterfall, and
as a scholar beside crested waves.
This small boulder shows good use of the
natural form of the stone so appreciated by
the Qianlong Emperor. For very similar
examples, see Chang, The Refined Taste of
the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic
and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court,
no. 48, pp. 158–9, in the collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei; Schätze
Chinas aus Museen der DDR, no. 138,
pp. 242–3; and Tianjin Shi Yishu Bowuguan
Cang Yu, no. 226. Note also Hai-wai Yi-chen:
Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Jade I,
no. 114, p. 114, in the collection of the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; and
Keverne, Jade, fig. 3, p. 352.
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79
A fine jade group of monkeys
18th century
Height: 2G in, 6 cm
An unusual jade group of a camel and dog
the seated adult holds a leafy peach in its
right hand, and scratches its head with its
left; the young monkey reaches up to grasp
the fruit. Both animals have incised hair
either side of their spines, short, puffy tails,
and well-defined faces. The semi-translucent
stone is an even white tone with a fine
polish.
the two animals lie head to tail and grasp a
large spray of open lingzhi fungus in their
mouths. The camel has two humps, lightly
incised to simulate fur, a short neck and
another small, incised hump on its head.
The dog has scrolling ears and deeply
incised lines to its body, indicating ribs.
The camel’s legs and cloven hooves and
the dog’s legs and paws are worked in relief
to the underside. The stone is a variegated
grey and charcoal tone.
This group forms the rebus Linghou
xianshou (a wish for longevity). In the Ming
dynasty novel Xiyou Ji (The Journey to the
West), the Monkey, Sun Wukong, is placed
in charge of the Garden of Immortal
Peaches: however, he not only eats the ripe
peaches but also goes on to disrupt the
Queen Mother of the West’s Peach Festival,
held once every 3000 years.
For similar examples, see Burkart-Bauer,
Chinesische Jaden aus drei Jahrtausenden,
no. 198, pp. 129–30; and Jiang and Lin,
Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, p. 195.
78
A fine jade figure of a three-legged toad
the animal has large eyes, bumpy skin and
a notched spine. Below its wide mouth is a
group of clouds from which a small moon
emerges. The pale celadon-green semitranslucent stone has areas of russet skin
remaining and bears a soft polish.
The three-legged toad is the emblem of
the god of wealth, Liu Hai, and therefore
represents riches. The animal is also
associated with the moon, as some legends
state that Chang’e, the moon goddess,
metamorphosed into a toad.
For similar examples, see Ip, Chinese Jade
Carving, no. 184, pp. 202–03; Jiang and
Lin, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection,
p. 196; Keverne, Jade, fig. 92, p. 164; and
Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing,
no. 59, p. 77.
This seems to be a very rare subject, but
for a related larger example, see Zhang,
Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection of
p. 190.
80
A jade group of badgers
Length: 2B in, 5.5 cm
the two animals lie curled about each
other, forming an approximate circle with a
square hole in the centre. The badgers have
pointed faces, incised eyes, large ears and
bushy tails, and their legs are lightly incised
to simulate fur. The stone varies in tone
from grey through to charcoal.
Badgers are popular subjects in Chinese art
and represent conjugal joy.
For a related example, see Fung and Yeung,
Exquisite Jade Carving, no. 107, p. 131.
99
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A very fine jade model of a crab
realistically worked with eight legs, two large pincers, a bumpy shell and long eyes. Tied stems
of a lotus flower, seed pod and leaves trail over the underside, forming a stable foot, and are
entwined with millet. The semi-translucent stone is a pale celadon-green tone with russet
markings, mainly to the underside and intelligently used within the design, and bears a fine,
soft polish.
Formerly in the collection of E. T. Chow.
Created as a wedding present, the elements incorporated form the rebus Suisui hexie (May you
have a harmonious marriage year after year).
For similar examples, see Ip, Chinese Jade Carving, no. 190, pp. 210–11; Mai, Masterworks of
Chinese Jade in the National Palace Museum, Supplement, no. 24; Rawski and Rawson, China:
The Three Emperors 1662–1795, no. 226, p. 300, in the collection of the Palace Museum,
Beijing; Rawson and Ayers, Chinese Jade throughout the ages, no. 404; and Tregear, One
Man’s Taste: Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, no. J.27, p. 17.
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82
A jade figure of a goose
in a recumbent position with its head and
neck turned over its back and holding a
stem of leafy, fruiting peach in its beak. Its
wings are simply incised in low relief and
decorated with archaistic scrolls; its legs
and claws are worked in low relief to the
underside. The semi-translucent stone is a
greenish-white tone.
Geese and peaches are symbolic of long
life.
A similar figure is illustrated in Tsiang,
Radiance and Virtue: The R. Norris Shreve
Collection of Chinese Jade and Other
Oriental Works of Art, pl. 28, p. 43; and
note also a related figure of a crane in
Jadeware (III): The Complete Collection of
p. 100.
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83
A fine jade group of cranes
18th century
the birds rest with their heads turned over
their backs to face each other, the larger
holding a spray of fruiting, leafy peach in
its beak. The cranes are well detailed with
short crests, incised, round eyes and neatly
folded wings, incised with various patterns;
their legs and claws are worked in low
relief to the underside. The semi-translucent
stone is a good cloudy-white tone with very
small oatmeal inclusions.
Cranes and peaches are both symbolic of
longevity, and this subject represents the
rebus Heshou yannian (May the crane and
peaches grant you one thousand years).
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A rare jade wall vase
18th century
the well-rounded sides flare from a spreading foot and end in a waisted neck from which
two scroll handles issue. The vessel is worked in low relief with a large archaistic taotie mask
between incised blade bands to the neck and foot. The back has two holes for attachment,
cleverly hidden by a pair of bats with outstretched wings. The semi-translucent stone is a
greyish-green tone with slight cloudy and russet inclusions. (The base has two holes for
attachment to a stand, now missing.)
Provenance: William Clayton, London.
Wall vases are found in cloisonné enamel and porcelain, but appear to be exceptionally rare in
jade. For porcelain wall vases in situ in the Studio of the Three Rarities (Sanxi Tang) in the Hall
of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin dian) in the Forbidden City, Beijing, see Rawski and Rawson,
China: The Three Emperors 1662–1795, fig. 15, p. 44.
This particular jade is certainly a wall vase, and not an appliqué, because of the two holes for
hanging (covered by the bats) on the back of the vessel.
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86
A jade model of a lotus pod
17th century
A fine white jade cup
Second half of the 18th century
a flower and leaves borne on openwork
stems trail over the outside of the large pod,
which is embellished with seeds in high
relief. A frog clambers from the flower to
the pod. The stone is a grey-green colour
with oatmeal and darker inclusions.
with S-form sides and supported on a neatly
finished, conical foot ring. The cup is well
hollowed and the translucent stone is a
cloudy white tone.
A box and cover of similar design is
illustrated in Ip, Chinese Jade Carving,
no. 193, pp. 214–15. Note also a related
lotus pod with a small bird in Xue,
Zhongguo Yuqi Shangjian, no. 618, p. 319;
and a plain lotus pod in Gu, The Complete
Collection of Jades Unearthed in China,
Vol. 8, p. 239, in the collection of the
Jiangshan Museum, Zhejiang province.
This cup is similar in form to the set of six
white jade cups illustrated in our Summer
2007 exhibition, no. 112, pp. 128–9.
This shape is found in Qianlong porcelain
wine cups, but appears to be very rare in
jade. Jade cups tend to have straight sides,
although the larger tea or food bowls,
which sometimes have covers, are of
similar shape: see, for example, Rawson,
Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the
Qing, no. 29:13, p. 400, where it is noted
that “Undecorated jade vessels in porcelain
shapes, as here, probably represented the
highest quality of eating and drinking
utensils. Both the sumptuary laws, which
restricted the use of jade vessels, and
passages in novels that mention the use
of jade cups and bowls for eating and
drinking, make it evident that jade was
highly valued and used for these purposes.”
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A fine and rare jade figure of a boy
18th century
Length: 2I in, 6.4 cm
the boy holds the stems of a large lotus leaf
that curls around him and of other leaves
and a flower that rest on his back. In his left
hand he holds a box and cover, ribbed to
represent bamboo or possibly lacquer. The
boy wears baggy clothes, has a round face
with a happy expression to his features, and
incised hair tied in two topknots. The leaf is
incised with veins. The semi-translucent
stone is a good white tone, with some pale
greyish-brown speckling to the reverse.
A similar figure of a boy is illustrated in
Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth:
Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario
Museum, no. 13 (right), p. 36.
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88
A very fine jade figure of a horse
18th century
recumbent on incised crested waves. The
animal turns its head over its shoulder to
look at the heavenly texts tied securely on
its back with a ribbon. The animal has short
ears, well-defined facial features, an incised
mane and tail, and flames above all four
legs. The semi-translucent stone is a
greenish-white tone with some oatmeal
inclusions.
Similar examples are illustrated in Fung
and Yeung, Exquisite Jade Carving, p. 103;
Hartman-Goldsmith, Chinese Jade, no. 34,
p. 66, in the collection of the Saint Louis
Art Museum; Nott, The Flowery Kingdom,
pl. XLIV, p. 99; Tibet Museum, Jade
Selections from Yuan, Ming and Qing
Dynasties in the Tibet Museum, no. 101,
p. 148; and Zhang, Jadeware (II): The
Palace Museum, nos. 149 and 150, p. 189.
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An unusual jade vase
Height: 7B in, 18 cm
supported on an oval, conical foot, the
slender quatrefoil-section vessel has a
gently rounded body and a tall, flaring
mouth. Apart from the lobing, the jade is
left entirely plain. The semi-translucent
stone is a striated pale grey tone with a
soft polish.
Formerly in an English private collection.
It is rare to find a vase of such plain form,
as usually they have handles or other forms
of ornamentation: see, for example, Nott,
Chinese Jade throughout the Ages: A Review
of its Characteristics, Decoration, Folklore
and Symbolism, pl. XCVII, formerly in the
Summer Palace, Beijing; and Zhongguo
Meishu Quanji, Vol. 9, Jade, no. 315,
p. 185, in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
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90
A jade weight
18th century
after an archaic jade sword slide. One
end curls under in a scroll and the other is
more angular. The top is worked with rows
of small bosses in low relief and with an
archaistic monster mask to one end; narrow
flanges surround the edges. The semitranslucent jade is an even white tone.
Formerly in the collection of Erik Hancock.
A Han slide, on which the form of this
weight is based, is illustrated in Illustrated
Catalogue of Ancient Jade Artifacts in the
National Palace Museum, no. 311, p. 168.
See Great National Treasures of China:
Masterworks in the National Palace
Museum, no. 53, p. 139, for a zitan inkstick
rest inlaid with a similar weight, dated
Ming; and note also Rawski and Rawson,
China: The Three Emperors 1662–1795,
no. 168, pp. 252–3, for scroll six of Guwan
Tu (Pictures of Ancient Playthings), made
for the Yongzheng Emperor and dated
1728, in the collection of the Percival
David Foundation of Chinese Art, which
includes a depiction of such a jade slide.
111
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A jade vase
18th century
standing on a stepped, spreading,
rectangular-section foot, the vase has
rounded sides that step into an angular
collar around the shoulder, rise to a long,
square-section neck and end in a flared
rim. The semi-translucent stone is a
spinach-green tone with a lustrous polish.
With a boxwood (huangyangmu) stand.
92
A jade vase and cover
18th century
the slender vase has a circular body, a
spreading, rectangular-section foot, a
waisted neck, from which two handles in
the form of scrolling phoenixes suspending
loose rings issue, and an upright rim. The
two main faces are each worked in low
relief with the Ba jixiang (Eight Buddhist
Emblems) surrounding a leafy lotus
bloom; the narrow convex sides are plain.
The domed cover is worked with a band
of lotus lappets and is surmounted by a
stepped knop. The stone is a deep
spinach-green tone.
For vases of this form decorated with the
Eight Buddhist Emblems, see Finlay, The
Chinese Collection: selected works from the
Norton Museum of Art, no. 106, pp. 242–3;
Hartman, Chinese Jade of Five Centuries,
pl. 38, pp. 130–1, in the collection of the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco;
Nott, Chinese Jade throughout the Ages:
A Review of its Characteristics, Decoration,
Folklore and Symbolism, pl. CX, p. 133, in
the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery,
Port Sunlight; and Nott, Chinese Jades in
the Stanley Charles Nott Collection, pl. XLI,
pp. 206–07.
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93
A very fine and rare jade figure of a luohan
18th century
kneeling, he holds a rosary in his right hand, and his left is hidden in the folds of his robe.
He has long, incised eyebrows, a prominent nose and jaw, long ears and a smiling expression
to his features. The luohan wears a robe, and a shawl over one shoulder. The semi-translucent
stone is a pale celadon-green tone with some oatmeal inclusions.
See Fong and Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
fig. 144, p. 405, for an eighteenth-century rubbing of a similar luohan from Sixteen Luohans,
attributed to Guanxiu (832–912).
It is more usual to find such luohan on boulders, but for similar freestanding examples, see
Zhang, Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, nos. 174
and 175, pp. 210–11; and Zhang and Zhang, Jade Artifact Collection in the Palace Museum,
no. 145, p. 154.
For related luohan boulders, see Chang, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition
of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, no. 43, pp. 148–9, in the collection of
the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing,
no. 29:19, pp. 409–11; Roberts, “Chinese Jades”, fig. 8, in the collection of the Walters Art
Gallery, Baltimore; Trésors du Musée national du Palais, Taipei: Mémoire d’Empire, no. 37,
p. 73; and Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, no. 104, pp. 122–3, dated late seventeenth
to early eighteenth centuries.
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94
A fine jade brush pot (bitong )
18th century
of cylindrical form and worked with a continuous landscape in various depths of relief.
A scholar and his attendant stand beneath a pavilion beside water, watching a crane fly
overhead, and another scholar and attendant rest beside a waterfall admiring two more cranes.
Various rocky paths climb up the steep hillsides that are strewn with trees, including pine,
wutong and prunus. The base is worked to resemble rocks. The stone is a fine spinach-green
tone with a lustrous polish.
Formerly in an English private collection.
For similar examples, see Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935–6,
no. 2855, in the Buchanan-Jardine collection; Chang, The Refined Taste of the Emperor:
Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, no. 58, pp. 178–9, in
the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Fong and Watt, Possessing the Past:
Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, pl. 35, p. 69; Schneeberger, The Baur
Collection Geneva: Chinese Jades and Other Hardstones, no. B98; Watson and Ho, The Arts
of China after 1620, pl. 95, p. 84, in the collection of the Field Museum, Chicago; and Zhang,
Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 198, p. 237.
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A pair of very fine jade brushes
18th century
each of plain, cylindrical form with a convex tip and a swollen, globular base, hollowed for
the insertion of the hair. The semi-translucent stone is a fine, even greenish-white tone.
Seemingly simple, the creation of a perfect cylinder in jade would probably have been a
difficult task, and such brushes were almost certainly made for imperial use.
A very similar, slightly smaller brush is illustrated in Ip, Chinese Jade Carving, no. 269,
pp. 286–7. For other related examples, see Chan, The Life of Emperor Qianlong, no. 63.11,
a pair; The Four Treasures of the Study – Inksticks and Writing Brushes: The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 174, p. 195; Knight, He and Bartholomew,
Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century, From the Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco, no. 94, p. 118; and Zhang, Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection of Treasures of
the Palace Museum, no. 208, p. 248, a pair.
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A rare jade vase (meiping )
Qianlong period
Height: 10K in, 27 cm
standing on a neatly worked, straight foot ring, the sides flare steeply to a high, well-rounded
shoulder, turn inwards to a waisted neck and terminate in an everted, rounded rim. The sides
are worked in low relief with the Ba jixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems), trailing tied ribbons,
amid leafy, scrolling lotus and other flowers, all beneath a bowstring line around the base of
the neck. The stone is a deep spinach-green tone with some darker areas. The base is incised
with a gilt six-character Qianlong seal mark within a double square.
Formerly in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This is a rare form in jade and is more often found in ceramic, but for other spinach-green
examples, see Jadeware (III): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum,
no. 64, p. 76; Li, Chinese Jades Throughout the Ages – Connoisseurship of Chinese Jades,
Vol. 12, no. 33, pp. 66–7, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing; and Tibet
Museum, Jade Selections from Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in the Tibet Museum, no. 65,
pp. 108–09. Note also a slightly smaller example, incised with a Jiaqing mark, illustrated in
Yang, A Romance with Jade: From the De An Tang Collection, no. 30, p. 70.
121
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97
A very fine soapstone figure
circa 1700
of a luohan, seated with his right knee raised to balance books that he holds steady with his
left hand; the books are draped with a cloth inscribed with two characters, reading Jing wen
(Classical text). The figure’s head is superbly carved with a tall crown, a wrinkled forehead,
incised, straggly eyebrows, downcast eyes, prominent cheekbones, an incised beard and hair,
long earlobes and raised veins at his temples. He wears layered robes falling in soft folds and
tied with a clasp over one shoulder; his shoes protrude from the hems. The hems of the robes
and the cloth are incised and gilt with waves, and lotus flowers on waves. The stone varies in
tone from pale cream, used mainly for the head, to deep orange for the outer robe and shoes.
Formerly in a European private collection and acquired in Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion.
The quality of carving of this Shoushan soapstone figure is of the highest standard and perhaps
surpasses that of a similar example illustrated in Palace Museum, Images of Buddha:
Collections of the Palace Museum, no. 156, p. 223. Note also related figures of Bodhidharma,
in Li and Watt, The Chinese Scholar’s Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period, no. 53, in
the collection of the Shanghai Museum; and in Zhu, Ming Qing Guwan Zhenshang, p. 245.
For jade boulders worked with similar luohan, see Tsiang, Radiance and Virtue: The R. Norris
Shreve Collection of Chinese Jade and Other Oriental Works of Art, pl. 24, p. 39; and Watt,
Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, no. 104, pp. 122–3, in the collection of the Fogg Art
Museum, Harvard University.
123
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A banded agate brush washer
18th century
in the form of two pomegranates borne on
a leafy stem. One fruit is hollowed, to form
the washer, and split to reveal its seeds. The
stone varies in tone from white through to
deep amber-brown, with some areas of the
natural, unpolished surface remaining,
mainly to the base.
A split pomegranate represents the rebus
Liukai baizi (a wish for numerous sons).
99
A fine and rare carnelian ram
18th century
in a recumbent posture with finely incised
eyes, long, twisting horns, a short, puffy
tail, and legs and hooves tucked neatly
beneath it. The animal breathes out a cloud
of qi from which a yin–yang symbol
emerges; further clouds are carved in high
relief to the back. The clouds are worked
from the red areas of the stone and the ram
from the white.
This subject is, of course, well known in
jade, but rare in carnelian.
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A rare bone comb
Western Zhou dynasty
one side is slightly convex. The edges are
carved with birds’ heads in profile beneath
a geometric crown, and both sides are
decorated with incised lines and circles and
pierced, all above tapering teeth. There is
accumulation of sand in the recessed areas,
and the surface bears some cinnabar traces.
Combs were made of various materials
including bone, ivory, jade and wood in
ancient China: see, for example, two jade
combs from the late Shang dynasty in
Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Tomb of
Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, fig. 2,
pl. CXXVIII, one with confronting birds in
profile, and the other with a plain top and
a geometric crest. A jade comb of the
middle Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated
in Yang, The Beauty of Jade, no. 101, p. 79,
is decorated with a related design of
confronting birds. Note also a jade tablet
with similar workmanship and design,
dated Western Zhou, in Jarrige, National
museum Arts asiatiques – Guimet, p. 80;
and a bone hairpin, in the collection of
the British Museum, with animals’ heads in
profile, in Watson, Chinese Ivories from the
Shang to the Qing, no. 4, p. 29.
101
An unusual bone comb
Tang dynasty or Five Dynasties
Length: 4B in, 10.4 cm
of hemispherical form and tapering towards
the sides. The top is pierced with two
friezes: a wider floral design above a simple
leaf scroll. The teeth are narrow and regular.
The material has partly turned a mellow
turquoise colour through burial.
A very similar example is illustrated in
White, Tombs of Old Lo-yang, no. 147,
pl. LX. Note also closely related jade combs
in Jadeware (II): The Complete Collection
of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 16,
p. 18; and in Zhang, Jadeware (I): The
Palace Museum, no. 193, p. 184. Clunas
illustrates a similar hemispherical bone
comb in Chinese Carving, fig. 1, p. 10,
dated AD 1000–1100.
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A very small and unusual bone tortoise seal
Western Han dynasty
N in, 1.9 cm square
the square-section seal is surmounted by a
recumbent tortoise with its head raised and
an incised carapace. The base is carved
with three characters, most probably
reading Mo si ma (Assistant Commander).
For related gilt-bronze tortoise seals of
the Western Han, see A Catalogue of
the Special Exhibition of Bronze Seals
Throughout the Dynasties in the National
Palace Museum, nos. 111–19, pp. 178–86.
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103
A rare carved black lacquer ewer
Length: 4K in, 11.7 cm
after an archaic bronze vessel (yi ), the oval
ewer has a broad lip, opposite which is a
loop handle carved with an animal mask,
and stands on a solid, stepped foot. The
black lacquer is marbled with five layers of
red and carved with scroll designs through
to an ochre ground.
Formerly in the collection of M. Doullens,
French Ambassador to China in Beijing
before 1914.
It is very rare to find small ewers decorated
in this technique, which is more often
found on boxes and dishes, but Garner
illustrates a related libation cup, in the
collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum, in Chinese Lacquer, no. 56.
104
A carved red lacquer ewer
based on an archaic bronze original (yi ).
The broad oval vessel has a loop handle,
issuing from an archaistic animal mask,
an everted lip and a solid, stepped foot.
The sides are carved with two birds, one
perched in flowering prunus and the other
in camellia, on a ground of rosette diaper
between bands of key-fret around the
mouth and wavy petals around the foot.
The interior and base are lacquered black.
Formerly in the collection of M. Doullens,
French Ambassador to China in Beijing
before 1914.
Kopplin illustrates a similar pair of ewers,
supported on short feet, in Im Zeichen des
Drachen: Von der Schönheit chinesischer
Lacker, Hommage an Fritz Löw-Beer,
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart.
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A rare carved red lacquer stem cup
the U-shaped cup has an everted rim and is
supported on a spreading stem. The sides of
the cup are carved with a continuous frieze
between bands of key-fret and wavy petals.
A scholar, wearing an official’s hat and belt,
and three attendants, carrying a fan, a
parasol and a wrapped box, are depicted
in a landscape with buildings, rocks and
trees, including pine, against various diaper
grounds. The stem is carved with lingzhi
fungus reserved against a rosette diaper
above a chevron and half-blossom band.
The rim and base are lined with beaten
silver.
Formerly in a French private collection and
purchased in Berlin in 1958.
It is rare to find lacquer stem cups carved
with figural subjects; they are more usually
found decorated with fruits, or birds and
flowers: see, for example, Carved Lacquer
in the Collection of the Palace Museum,
pl. 258; Garner, Chinese Lacquer, no. 69,
in the collection of the British Museum; and
Kopplin, Im Zeichen des Drachen: Von der
Schönheit chinesischer Lacker, Hommage
an Fritz Löw-Beer, no. 67, p. 151, in the
collection of the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart.
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106
A carved red lacquer bowl
the U-shaped sides rise from a stepped foot
ring and end in an everted lip. A broad
frieze of two birds, branches of camellia
and prunus, and rocks against a rosette
diaper ground is carved between bands of
key-fret around the lip and wavy petals
around the foot. The interior and base are
lacquered black.
Provenance: Madame Wannieck, Paris,
1942.
For similar examples, see Carved Lacquer
in the Collection of the Palace Museum,
pls. 254–5; Garner, Chinese Lacquer,
no. 70, in the collection of the Victoria and
Albert Museum; Kopplin, Im Zeichen des
Drachen: Von der Schönheit chinesischer
Lacker, Hommage an Fritz Löw-Beer,
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; and McElney,
Inaugural Exhibition (Volume 2: Chinese
Metalwares and Decorative Arts), no. 321,
p. 134.
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A small carved red lacquer box and cover
Late Ming dynasty
of shallow circular form with straight sides.
The top is carved with a smiling Immortal,
carrying a long staff and a sack over his
shoulder, and wearing baggy robes falling
open to reveal his chest and large belly,
against a fine air diaper and a rosette diaper
ground. The sides are decorated with
interlocking T-pattern. The base and interior
are lacquered black.
For similar examples, see Ancient Chinese
Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, no. 387;
and Tregear, One Man’s Taste: Treasures
from the Lakeside Pavilion, no. L.19, p. 8.
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A small carved red lacquer box and cover
18th century
of cinquefoil form with deep, straight sides.
The top is carved with the God of
Literature, Kuixing, and nine boys. Kuixing
is holding a writing brush and an ingot,
and some of the boys, who all wear baggy
trousers and tunics, play musical instruments
while one holds aloft a rice measure, all
against a geometric diaper ground. The
sides of the cover are carved with a
complex wan diaper, the rim of the box
with a band of interlocking T-pattern, and
the base with flowering peony. The interior
is lacquered black.
A similar box is illustrated in Herberts,
Oriental Lacquer: Art and Technique,
pp. 24–5.
109
A carved two-colour lacquer box
and cover
18th century
of octofoil form with deep, straight sides.
The top is carved through the red lacquer to
a green rosette diaper with four floral sprays
about a sprig of chrysanthemum. The red
lacquer sides are carved with a wan diaper
and the base is incised with the same
design that appears on the cover. The
interior is lacquered black.
A box of similar form is illustrated in Zhu,
Ming Qing Guwan Zhenshang, p. 196.
133
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A fine and rare carved red lacquer alms bowl
18th century
of compressed globular form standing on a broad, short foot ring. The sides are carved with a
continuous frieze of two large, scaly fish swimming amid crested waves in which precious
emblems are scattered. The mouth is surrounded by a cloud-lappet border, and the foot by a
lotus-lappet border; the foot itself is carved with a minute interlocking T-pattern. The interior
and base are lacquered black.
Provenance: Louis Joseph, London.
The fish is an emblem of harmony and abundance.
Bowls of this type are rare, but see an example in National Museum of Chinese History,
Exhibition of Chinese History, 10-3-6, p. 179, carved with seven Buddhas.
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A very fine and rare imperial carved three-colour lacquer screen
Qianlong period
Width: 25N in, 65.4 cm
the rectangular screen is carved through a layer of red to dark green and ochre diaper
grounds, representing air and water respectively. One side depicts Wang Xizhi writing at his
desk in the Orchid Pavilion while other scholars compose poems on small promontories to the
sides of the stream. An attendant brings Wang Xizhi a cup and another carries a goose. In the
foreground a scholar, carrying a staff, crosses a bridge accompanied by his attendant, and three
more attendants carry refreshments. Wine cups on lotus leaves float in the water in which a
pair of geese swim. The landscape is finely carved with steep hills in the distance, and various
trees, including pine, wutong and willow, and bamboo. The other side is similarly carved with
a scholar watching a crane fly away. He is accompanied by various attendants: one sweeps the
large pavilion, and two carry a birdcage. The crane’s mate stands on one of the promontories
to one side. The scenes are enclosed within a raised border of two bands of key-fret. The stand
is carved with panels of bats and lotus scroll reserved against a geometric diaper ground, with
further bats and lotus scroll to the aprons and scroll feet.
In AD 353 the Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion took place: forty-two literati assembled at the
Orchid Pavilion near Shaoxing in Zhejiang province to celebrate the Spring Purifying Festival.
A poetry competition was held in which cups of wine were floated in a stream, and whoever
was closest to the cup when it stopped had to compose a poem. Wang Xizhi (303–61) was a
calligrapher who attended the gathering, and his most famous work is the preface to the
compilation of poems written by the group of scholars. The Lanting xu is to this day the classic
narrative on parties, and Wang Xizhi reflects on their tranquil pleasures and the impermanence
of pleasure and, indeed, life.
Wang Xizhi is also famous for rearing geese, and it is thought that he mastered the technique
of rotating his wrist while writing by watching the movement of geese’s necks.
A very similar screen is illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum,
pls. 373 and 374. For further examples, see Fong and Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from
the National Palace Museum, Taipei, pl. 334, p. 534, and note also pl. 335, p. 534, a brush
pot carved with Wang Xizhi exchanging calligraphy for a goose; Hobson, Chinese Art, pl. XCV;
Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum, no. 60, pp. 86–7; Special Exhibition: Oriental Lacquer Arts, no. 581; and Watson
and Ho, The Arts of China after 1620, pl. 75, p. 66, in the collection of the Osterreichisches
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna.
Carved red lacquer boxes depicting this motif are illustrated in Chinese Lacquer in the Palace
Museum Collection, no. 44, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; and in
Jacobsen, Appreciating China: Gifts from Ruth and Bruce Dayton, no. 70, p. 127, in the
collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
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A fine carved red lacquer box and cover
18th century
of circular section with a gently domed top and base. The box and cover are carved overall
with a total of five two-horned, five-clawed scaly dragons in pursuit of a flaming pearl amid
small scrolling waves that partly hide their bodies. The interior is lacquered black.
For related examples, see Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, pl. 311,
carved with nine dragons; Chinese Lacquer in the Palace Museum Collection, no. 54, in the
collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas
Collections, Lacquerware, no. 154, p. 157, in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of
San Francisco; Jakobsen and Sørensen, Empire of the Dragons: Chinese Art Treasures through
4000 years from Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark, no. 148, in the collection of the
Danish Museum of Decorative Art; Kopplin, Im Zeichen des Drachen: Von der Schönheit
chinesischer Lacker, Hommage an Fritz Löw-Beer, no. 85, pp. 174–5, in the collection of
the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; and Strange, Chinese Lacquer, pl. XXII, in the collection
of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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A fine and rare imperial carved red lacquer vase
Qianlong period
Height: 8D in, 21 cm
of elegant, slender double-gourd form supported on a spreading rectangular foot. Both sides
are carved with two medallions containing the gilt characters Da ji (Great good fortune) on
hexagonal floral diaper grounds and surrounded by cloud lappets, all reserved against a dense
ground of the Ba jixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems), tied with ribbons, amid scrolling foliage.
The neck is carved with pendent lappets and the foot with lappets against a leiwen ground
above a band of key-fret. A ribbon is tied around the middle of the vase, falling down the
narrow sides in soft folds. The interior and base are lacquered black and the base is incised
with three characters, reading Chong hua gong (Palace of Double Brilliance).
The expression Chonghua referred in ancient times to the splendour of the reign of Shun,
following on from the great achievements of his predecessor Yao.
The Chonghua gong is a palace in the northwest of the Forbidden City, consisting of three
courtyards. As the Qianxi Ersuo, it was the residence of Hongli from the age of seventeen,
and before he became the Qianlong Emperor, and he spent the first years of his married life
in these private chambers. On becoming the Qianlong Emperor, the palace was renamed
Chonghua gong, and was used, together with the Palace of Heavenly Purity, for annual tea
parties at which guests were asked to write poems. For photographs of the interior of the
Chonghua gong, see Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II): The Complete Collection
of Treasures of the Palace Museum, nos. 258–60, pp. 305–07.
A similar, circular-section vase, lacking the ribbon, is illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the
Collection of the Palace Museum, pl. 389. Such vases are also found in other materials: see,
for example, Zhongguo Meishu Fenlei Quanji: Zhongguo Jinyin Boli Falangqi Quanji, Vol. 6,
no. 309, p. 204, a painted enamel version in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing;
and Zhou, “The Zande Lou Ceramics Gallery”, fig. 8, one of a pair of porcelain wall vases tied
with a ribbon, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum.
143
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A fine, large carved red lacquer box and cover
Qianlong period
of circular form with rounded sides and supported on a very shallow foot. The top is deeply
carved with a circular medallion of three five-clawed, two-horned, scaly dragons in pursuit of
a flaming pearl amid cloud scrolls that partly conceal their bodies, all enclosed by a raised
geometric border and a band of lotus lappet. The sides of both the box and cover are carved
with a total of eight phoenixes amid scrolling peony on a geometric diaper ground. The birds
are finely carved in different postures, with various types of feathers, delicately incised. The
foot rim is carved with key-fret and enclosed by a narrow border of chevrons and half blooms.
The interior and base are lacquered black.
Formerly in the collection of Prinzessin Sybilla von Hessen.
It is rare to find this type of box with phoenix decoration to the sides, but for an example with
a similarly decorated top and lotus scroll to the sides, see Carved Lacquer in the Collection of
the Palace Museum, pl. 307.
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A pair of fine carved three-colour
lacquer jardinières
18th century
with deep, straight sides, and everted,
foliate flange rims, supported on four
cloud-shaped feet. The vessels are carved
through the red lacquer to a layer of green
and finally to ochre with mirror-image
scenes in four panels to each jardinière.
The scenes show deer and cranes in
landscapes with trees, including pine and
wutong, beside water with clouds above,
against various diapers representing earth,
water and air. The panels are reserved
against scrolling lotus. The edges of the
rims are carved with key-fret, and the tops
with a simple lotus scroll. The interiors and
bases are lacquered black.
Formerly in the collection of the late
H. R. H. The Prince Henry, Duke of
Gloucester.
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A very fine and rare inlaid black lacquer brush pot (bitong )
18th or 19th century
of square section with indented corners and standing on four bracket feet. The sides are
covered with sand lacquer, and inlaid in mother-of-pearl, horn and bone, some stained, with
sprays of flowering prunus, lily, bamboo and chrysanthemum, and insects. The interior and
base are lacquered black.
The form of this vessel and the freedom of inlay would suggest a date of the eighteenth century
or earlier: see, for example, a similar brush pot illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and
Ming Dynasties: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 205, p. 259,
dated late Ming; and an inlaid black lacquer table screen in Furniture of the Ming and Qing
Dynasties (I): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 200, p. 248,
dated early Qing.
However, while sand lacquer (an effect similar to that of Japanese makie) was used in the
Song dynasty, the technique was later lost, and it was not until the eighteenth century that
Lu Yingzhi, a famous Qianlong lacquer craftsman from Yangzhou, managed to recreate it.
The complete history of this is related in Tsang and Moss, Arts from the Scholar’s Studio,
no. 63, pp. 102–03. Moreover, Lu Yingzhi’s grandson, Lu Dong (zi Kuisheng), active in the
first half of the nineteenth century, was also a lacquer artist and produced extremely fine inlaid
lacquer objects. For examples of his work, see Tsang and Moss, op cit, nos. 63, 64, 85, 149,
216 and 217; Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty: The Complete Collection of Treasures
of the Palace Museum, nos. 188 and 189, pp. 252–5; and Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, Vol. 6,
nos. 199–202, pp. 174–5, all in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Objects made
by Lu Kuisheng all appear to bear his seal, so it is not possible to confirm an attribution to
him, but the standard of workmanship is certainly similar to that of works by him, and the use
of the sand lacquer ground would certainly point to manufacture by him or possibly a member
of his family or circle.
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A fine lacquer cabinet
Kangxi period
23B x 19 x 13K in, 58.7 x 48.2 x 34.6 cm
of rectangular form with two drawers enclosing a fitted interior. The front is decorated with a
panel containing pairs of mythical lion-like animals, birds and hares amid various flowering
plants, including peony, prunus and lingzhi fungus in relief lacquer on a black lacquer ground,
surrounded by painted lacquer borders of lozenges, lotus flowers inlaid in mother-of-pearl,
and key-fret. The top and sides are decorated in the same technique with panels of mythical
animals, birds and plants; the back is plain. The interior is fitted with ten drawers, embellished
with sprays of fruits and flowers, and the doors are decorated with phoenixes amid peony and
ornamental rocks. The undersides of the drawers bear inked Chinese inscriptions to indicate
their placement. The fittings are baitong (paktong), and the lock-plate is chased with birds
amid flowers, and the hinges with scrolling lotus.
Similar depictions of birds and mythical animals can be found on Kangxi porcelain:
see, for example, Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, no. 100, pp. 138–9.
A cabinet decorated in the same technique with hunting scenes is illustrated in Carvalho,
The World of Lacquer: 2000 Years of History, no. 16, p. 59. Such cabinets are, however, more
often found in Coromandel lacquer, and for a similar example, see Jourdain and Jenyns,
Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, pl. 20, p. 83. Note also a lacquer box painted
with similar birds illustrated in Herberts, Oriental Lacquer: Art and Technique, pp. 234–5.
151
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An amber model of a finger citron
18th century
Length: 2I in, 6.3 cm
one large and one small fruit are borne on
an openwork stem, and flowering branches
twist over the surface. A bat rests on the
larger fruit. The material is a fine orange
colour; the bat and fingers of the fruits
are carved from the translucent areas of
the amber.
The finger citron, or Buddha’s hand citron,
represents a wish for blessings and longevity.
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A fine embroidered silk panel
18th century
23 x 46 in, 58.5 x 117 cm
flowers, including begonia, marigold and rose, grow around a pierced ornamental rock, all
embroidered in subtle pastel tones on a golden-yellow silk ground. In a Chinese wood frame.
Begonia (qiuhaitang ) was a favourite subject of Chinese craftsmen from the Song dynasty
onwards, and as it blooms in the autumn and bears a resemblance to crab apple, it is called
“autumn crab apple”. Marigold is known in Chinese as “chrysanthemum of ten thousand
longevities”, and the rose is symbolic of longevity.
The quality of this embroidery indicates that it would have been commissioned by the Imperial
Household Department (Neiwufu), and its colouring and subject matter suggest that it would
have adorned the walls of one of the imperial palaces, and, with its wishes for longevity, may
have been a birthday present for the emperor or one of his close family.
A related panel of auspicious flowers and rocks, symbolising birthday congratulations, is
illustrated in Embroidered Pictures: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum, no. 32, p. 65. Note also a screen inset with similar panels in Hu, Gugong Bowuyuan
Cang Ming Qing Gongting Jiaju Daguan, Vol. I, no. 381, pp. 356–7, in the collection of the
Palace Museum, Beijing.
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CHRONOLOGY
EARLY HISTORICAL DYNASTIES
IMPERIAL DYNASTIES
Neolithic
circa 7000–1570 BC
Qin
Shang
circa 1570–1045 BC
Han
206 BC – AD 220
Western Han
206 BC – AD 8
Xin dynasty
(Wang Mang interregnum) AD 9–23
Eastern Han
25–220
Zhou
circa
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring & Autumn period
1045–256
1045–771
770–256
770–482
481–221
BC
BC
BC
BC
BC
221–206 BC
Six Dynasties
Three Kingdoms
Wei
Shu
Wu
Western Jin
Eastern Jin
Southern Dynasties
Liu Song
Southern Qi
Liang
Chen
Northern Dynasties
Northern Wei
Eastern Wei
Western Wei
Northern Qi
Northern Zhou
220–581
220–265
220–265
221–263
220–280
265–316
317–420
Sui
581–618
Tang
618–906
Five Dynasties
907–960
Liao
Song
Northern Song
Southern Song
420–479
479–502
502–557
557–589
386–534
534–550
535–557
550–557
557–581
907–1125
960–1279
960–1127
1127–1279
Xixia
1032–1227
Jin
1115–1234
Yuan
1279–1368
Ming
Hongwu
Jianwen
Yongle
Xuande
Zhengtong
Jingtai
Tianshun
Chenghua
Hongzhi
Zhengde
Jiajing
Longqing
Wanli
Tianqi
Chongzhen
1368–1644
1368–1398
1399–1402
1403–1424
1426–1434
1436–1449
1450–1456
1457–1464
1465–1487
1488–1505
1506–1521
1522–1566
1567–1572
1573–1619
1621–1627
1628–1644
Qing
Shunzhi
Kangxi
Yongzheng
Qianlong
Jiaqing
Daoguang
Xianfeng
Tongzhi
Guangxu
Xuantong
1644–1911
1644–1661
1662–1722
1723–1735
1736–1795
1796–1820
1821–1850
1851–1861
1862–1874
1875–1908
1909–1911
Catalogue design by Brookes Forty
tel: 01225 314478
info@brookesforty.com
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Page 2
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WINTER EXHIBITION 2008
Roger Keverne
London W1S 3RG
Telephone: 020 7434 9100
Facsimile: 020 7434 9101
www.keverne.co.uk

winter exhibition 2008

Transcription

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