Page 317 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

1087
A LARGE MOLDED UNDERGLAZE-BLUE,
COPPER-RED AND CELADON-DECORATED
‘PHOENIX TAIL’ VASE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The body is decorated with birds in fight above a
continuous scene of a pheasant standing on a tall
celadon-glazed rock amidst fowering tree peony,
magnolia and crabapple, all below a narrow band
of lotus, chrysanthemum and rose sprays on the
shoulder and a crabapple tree and another celadon-
glazed rock on the trumpet-shaped neck. The base
is inscribed with an apocryphal Chenghua mark.
27 in. (69.5 cm.) high
$25,000-35,000

PROVENANCE
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 10 March 1965.
EXHIBITED
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, 1933.
On loan: Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Minneapolis
Institute of Arts, March 1984-January 1995.
The combination of celadon green with
underglaze cobalt blue and underglaze copper
red is relatively rare, no doubt because it was so
dificult to fre successfully. With the coming of
the Kangxi reign came renewed imperial interest
in porcelain and a demand for high quality and
variety. In the early years of the reign the potters
revived the combination of underglaze blue and
underglaze copper red on single pieces, and with
the re-establishment of the imperial kiln complex
court demand for innovation resulted in molded
and carved surface decoration and the use of
areas of celadon green being added to this already
challenging palette.
The favored decorative theme in this technique
is landscape with trees, mountains, water and
molded and carved celadon-green rocks. Compare
a Kangxi period trumpet-mouthed vase in the
Seikado Bunko, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai toji
zenshu, Tokyo, 1983, vol. 15, Qing, p. 146, no. 138.
Compare, also, a Kangxi period vase of similar
shape and large size, sold at Christie’s New York,
26 March 2003, lot 260.
清康熙 釉下三彩鳳尾尊

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