Page 60 - Bonhams May 12 16 London

39
A BLUE AND WHITE BEAKER VASE, GU
Circa 1640
The flaring neck vibrantly painted with a scene of
a kneeling attendant presenting an official’s cap to
a dignitary surrounded by attendants with a horse
and soldiers carrying banners, the mid-section
decorated with a scholar reclining at leisure next to
a pile of books while his boy-attendant brings his
zither in its silk case, the lower section with pendent
leaf lappets, the rim incised with a floral scroll and
around the lower body a chevron band.
43.2cm (17in) high

£8,000 - 12,000
HK$88,000 - 130,000 CNY73,000 - 110,000

約1640年 青花加官圖花觚

According to Scarlett Jang, generic representations
of the emperor’s emissary handing a scroll or cap
of official appointment was a popular motif of Zhe
school and court painters during the Ming dynasty.
The present vase highlights a dilemma faced by the
scholar-officials after the fall of the Ming dynasty in
1644. To serve the emperor was to fulfill the highest
Confucian obligation, but to serve the invading
Manchu emperor would compromise loyalty to the
fallen Ming. See J.Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the
Seventeenth Century: Landscapes, Scholars’ Motifs
and Narratives, New York, 1995, p.144.

Compare a dish, dated to the Shunzhi period, with
a similar motif illustrated in The Complete Collection
of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White
Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong,
2002, pp.4-5.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED BELGIAN
COLLECTION 顯貴比利時私人藏品

40
A LARGE BLUE AND WHITE ‘KRAAK
PORSELEIN’ DISH
Wanli
The interior boldly painted in deep cobalt-blue with a
shaped panel encircling a scene of a white elephant
beside a horse in a river, a white rabbit gazing at
both from a short distance behind a rock, all amidst
dynamic rockwork and various blooming flowers,
all framed by shaped panels enclosing various
diaper grounds, surrounded by large floral lappets
enclosing further geometric patterns, peaches and
auspicious objects extending over the cavetto and
wide flaring rim, the exterior painted with roundels
enclosing floral sprays.
50cm (19 3/4in) diam.

£8,000 - 12,000
HK$88,000 - 130,000 CNY73,000 - 110,000

明萬曆 青花克拉克三獸俱渡圖大盤

39 Provenance: a distinguished Belgian private
collection

來源：顯貴比利時私人收藏