Page 21 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

Porcelain vases decorated with relief-molded dragons Kangxi mark and period vases of related form were also
from the Kangxi period are extremely rare and rarer still is produced with a similarly rendered chilong painted to the
the present pair, of which no other example appears to be shoulder in copper red; see a pair, from the Richard Bennet
published. Vessels of this type were produced as a variation and J. Insley Blair Collections, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong,
of the ‘chrysanthemum’ vase which formed one of the 28th November 2012, lots 2116 and 2117.
eight prescribed vessels for the scholar’s table, one of the The use of coiling dragons modeled in high relief around the
most iconic groups of porcelain created under the Kangxi necks and shoulders of vases was already well known by the
emperor.
Tang dynasty (618-907) and continued to be popular in the
These vases are unusual for their white body and chilong Song dynasty in both bronze and ceramics, such as Longquan
which have been colored in the peachbloom glaze that celadon and qingbai. Preference for the motif intensiÞ ed in
was typically reserved for these eight prescribed vessels. the late Ming dynasty, particularly at the Dehua kilns, as well
Compare a related Kangxi mark and period vase, but as being produced in cloisonné enamel and bronze wares. By
potted with a straight cylindrical neck, the body washed recreating them in porcelain and covering them in a peachbloom
with peachbloom glaze and the chilong rendered green, in glaze that was pioneered in the Kangxi period, they possess a
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published in sense of modernity while celebrating traditions of the past.
Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, For bronze versions of this vase see two cast with narrow
New York, 1989, p. 237, no. 232; and another, from the Tsui
necks and garlic mouths and applied with models of dragons,
Museum of Art, Hong Kong, illustrated in The Tsui Museum attributed to the 16th/17th century due to their resemblance
of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 123, together with Þ ve further
with Dehua counterparts of this type, in the Victoria and Albert
vessels, this set of six later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong,
Museum, London, illustrated in Rose Kerr, Later Chinese
3rd November 1996, lot 557. Two similar vases, with an Bronzes, London, 1990, pl 29; and a bronze vase of pear form,
apocryphal mark of Chenghua, the white body applied with the cylindrical neck decorated with a dragon in relief chasing
an aubergine-glazed archaistic dragon, were sold in our
a pearl, attributed to the Qing dynasty, published in Philip K.
London rooms, one from the Aykroyd collection, 17th May
Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes. The Saint Louis Art Museum and
1966, lot 222, and the second, 14th April 1970, lot 150. Robert E. Kresko Collections, St Louis, 2008, pl. 29.

The present lot ilustrated in The Whitridge Collection of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1930, cat. no. 287
㛔㉵⑩䣢㕤˪The Whitridge Collection of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain˫炻⶜䇦䘬㐑喅埻⌂䈑棐炻⶜䇦䘬㐑炻1930⸜炻䶐嘇287

PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTION 19