Page 122 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

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A large pair of famille rose peacocks
87 19th century
118 | Bonhams Each handsome bird with delicate grisaille legs and pointed white
claws grasping onto its perch formed as a rounded pad of iron-red and
gilt lingzhi fungus issuing from reticulated rockwork embellished with
slender spreading boughs of blossoming prunus, the elegantly curving
body and neck enamelled with feather strokes against a shaded ground
of green and purple, the moulded wings enamelled with overlapping
rows of feathers terminating in a cascade of green feathers each
enamelled with a bright blue eye, the head cocked slightly to one side
beneath the high green-glazed three-feathered crest.
Each 51.5cm (20¼in) high (2).
£8,000 - 12,000
HK$94,000 - 140,000 CNY75,000 - 110,000

十九世紀 粉彩雕瓷孔雀一對

For a similar pair, but with less boldly enamelled bright plumage, see
David S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, colour pl. 326
formerly in the Hodroff Collection, Minneapolis; and see also W.Sargent,
The Copeland Collection, pp.164-5, for an earlier model of a standing
crane lacking the bold realistic leafy rockwork.

87
A large yellow and aubergine-glazed seated tiger
19th century
Amusingly modelled with its head turned to the right and mouth open in
a playful grin revealing its sharp teeth and rolling tongue, the character
wang painted between the thick eyebrows, the animal sitting proudly
upright on its front paws with a long tail curving over the hind legs and
boldly painted on the body with stripes.
39cm (15 3/8in) high
£8,000 - 12,000
HK$94,000 - 140,000 CNY75,000 - 110,000

十九世紀 黃地茄皮紫彩雕瓷老虎坐像

It is very unusual in Chinese Export porcelain to find large models of
tigers, particularly of the rather amusing and friendly variety depicted in
the present lot. See W.Sargent, The Copeland Collection, p.139, no.63
for a large seated hound of similar type. It is much more common to
find seated dogs of the large dimension shown in the present lot. Other
tigers were made in the Arita kilns in Japan; a pair in the Copeland
Collection is illustrated by W.Sargent, op.cit., p.253, pl.129, formerly
in the collection of J.A.Lloyd Hyde. The author suggests that the tiger
image was introduced to Japan, where it is not a native animal, as a
subject of Chinese Buddhist paintings; in Buddhist iconography, the tiger
represents the power of the faith, and symbolises courage and physical
strength.