Page 68 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

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A RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'MASTER OF THE ROCKS' JAR The present jar is decorated with a landscape in the so-called 'Master
Shunzhi/early Kangxi of the Rocks' style. This style, which seems to have developed
Of elegant baluster form, painted around the exterior with a continuous towards the mid-17th century in the final years of the Ming dynasty,
scene of craggy mountains in pencilled line around a lake with continued to be popular in the early years of the Kangxi reign, with
fisherman on a sampan, pavilions with scholars dotted throughout, a very few examples being made as late as the turn of the century.
all amidst various trees, the sky with V-shaped flocks of geese, all The 'Master of the Rocks' style was by no means limited to the brush
beneath a border of pine trees on the shoulder, the neck with a of a single artist, and appears in a number of versions on porcelains
border of lotus. from about 1640 to 1700. It was used on porcelains decorated in
27.8cm (11in) high. underglaze cobalt blue and also those decorated in underglaze blue
and copper red. There are even very rare examples where the style
£12,000 - 15,000 has been combined with famille verte enamels. The style itself is
CNY97,000 - 120,000 characterised by the use of 'hemp-fibre' strokes to produce rocky
landscapes full of movement and drama, often combined with the use
清順治至康熙早期 青花山水紋罐 of fluid dots to depict scrub and foliage.
Provenance: This development in porcelain painting reflected elements seen in the
Professor Desmond R. Laurence (1922-2019) landscape painting of certain artists working on silk and paper. The use
S. Marchant & Son, London, 17 October 2003 of 'hemp-fibre' brush strokes can be seen in the work of the famous
Marchant, London, 6 December 2010 late Ming dynasty literatus Dong Qichang (1555-1636), for example in
his hanging scroll 'Autumn Landscape' in the Nü Wa Chai Collection
Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: illustrated by J.Cahill, Chinese Painting, Lausanne, n.d., p.150. The
Marchant, Selected Chinese Porcelain from the Collection of Professor dramatic, almost writhing, rock forms as well as the 'hemp-fibre' brush
D.R. Laurence, London, 2010, pp.20-21, no.12 strokes can also be seen in paintings such as 'Returning Home from
Gathering Fungus' painted in 1628 by Wang Jianzhang (fl.1628-1644),
來源： illustrated by S.Little, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century:
Desmond R. Laurence 教授 (1922-2019) Landscapes, Scholars' Motifs and Narratives, New York, 1995, p.36,
倫敦古董商 S. Marchant & Son，2003年10月17日 fig.2.
倫敦古董商 Marchant，2010年12月6日
The influence of such paintings on the porcelain decorators at
展覽及錄著： Jingdezhen was not necessarily direct. This style of painting was not
《Selected Chinese Porcelain from the Collection of Professor D.R. only well-regarded, it also lent itself to translation into woodblock
Laurence》，倫敦，2010年，頁20-21，編號12 printing, and it is quite possible that it was through this medium that
aspects of style, such as 'hemp-fibre' strokes were transmitted to
the ceramic artists of Jingdezhen. See for example 'hemp-fibre'
brushstroke mountain landscape in the Mustard Seed Garden Manual
of Painting, circa 1679, illustrated by T.Canepa and K.Butler, Leaping
the Dragon Gate: The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-
Century Chinese Porcelain, London, 2021, p.404.
For a blue and white brushpot with this 'master of the rocks' style
landscape, Kangxi, see Ibid., p.404; other pieces including a gu vase,
and dish, Kangxi, all with related decoration, are in ibid., pp.406-417.

Compare with a related large blue and white 'master of the rocks' style
landscape vase, 18th century, which was sold at Sotheby's New York,
15 September 2015, lot 107.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
68 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.