Page 50 - 2020 September 22 Kangxi Porcelain Asia Week NYC

9/2/2020 Kangxi Porcelain – A Private Collection | Sotheby's

The present scene is from the famous Ming dynasty novel Sanguo Yanyi (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a 14th-
century novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. Informed by historical events, the story takes place in the third century during the
turbulent years at the end of the Han Dynasty. The part-factual, part-legendary, and part-mythical story chronicles the lives of
feudal lords and their retainers, who vied for the mandate to rule and reunify the country.

Themes of a kingdom divided and of conquest strategy would have had a wide appeal in the early Qing dynasty. The Manchus in
particular gravitated to martial subject matter. In fact, the first commissioned translation of the novel into Manchu was in 1650,
with reprints in 1721 and 1767; and an illustrated version in 1769. For further discussion, see Nicholas Pearce and Jason
Steuber, Original Intentions, Gainesville, 2012, pp. 146-147.

The elegant baluster form with its boldly flaring rim and the brilliant enamel palette of greens, yellows, blues and iron red with
details picked out or outlined in black were both innovations of the Kangxi period. The present vase represents the largest size
produced, a notable technical feat at the time. A similar yenyen was included in the Exhibition Chinesische Keramik,
Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, 1965, pl. 164. Compare also two vases from the Leonard Gow Collection, one of which features similar
subject matter, illustrated by R. L. Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, New York, 1925, col. pl. XIII.

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