Page 78 - CHRISTIE'S Marchant Nine Decades of Chinese Art 09/14/17

MARCHANT: NINE DECADES IN CHINESE ART

(detail)

734 A DEHUA FIGURE OF GUANYIN WITH
A SCROLL
A related He Chaozong-marked fgure of Guanyin holding a
MING DYNASTY, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED scroll, and seated on a reed mat, without the cowl covering
HE CHAOZONG MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE GOURD the hair, is illustrated by J. Ayers, Blanc de Chine: Divine
Images in Porcelain, New York, 2002, inside cover and p. 83,
The Goddess of Mercy is shown seated on a mat with the right no. 34. Another fgure with both hands hidden within the
hand resting elegantly on the raised right knee and the left folds of her long sleeves, also with a He Chaozong mark
hand gently cradling a scroll. The fgure wears a ruyi-shaped within a double-gourd, is illustrated by R. Blumenfeld,
hair ornament tucked under the cowl, and a fower-shaped Blanc de Chine: The Great Porcelain of Dehua, Hong Kong,
jewel on her chest, and a long robe falls in graceful folds 2002, p. 132, fg. A. Further related examples include one
around the body. The maker’s mark, He Chaozong, is incised illustrated by P. J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine: The Porcelain of
within a double gourd on the back and the glaze is of a warm Tehua in Fukien, New York, 1969, pl. 143, fg. B, and the
ivory tone. unmarked fgure holding a scroll, dated to the late 17th-early
7º in. (18.4 cm.) high 18th century, illustrated by C. J. A. Jörg, Chinese Ceramics
in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and
$50,000-70,000 Qing Dynasties, London, 1997, p. 244, no. 280.

PROVENANCE 明十七世紀早期 德化白釉書卷觀音坐像
《何朝宗》葫蘆形印款
Captain J. Meuldijk Collection, The Netherlands.
(mark)
Unlike the factories at Jingdezhen, porcelain production
at Dehua was not under Imperial supervision; reign marks
were therefore rarely used, and instead potters sometimes
impressed their own seals or workshops marks. Some of
these marked pieces have come to enjoy great prestige
among collectors, most notably the works of He Chaozong.
His Guanyin fgures are graceful and serene, often with
fnely detailed attributes or seated on elaborately hollowed
rockwork, and covered with a characteristic creamy rich
glaze. Despite his renown, little is known about the
potter, but modern scholarship now considers a late Ming
dynasty/17th century date to be most likely.

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