Page 320 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

1091
A MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE JARDINIÈRE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722), WITH CYCLICAL DATE CORRESPONDING TO 1717
The deep, bell-shaped body is decorated on one side with a scene of two scholars playing weiqi in a
canopied boat with attendants at the stern, drifting down a tranquil river in a mountainous landscape.
The reverse is inscribed with the Chi Bi Fu (Ode to the Red Clif) followed by a cyclical date, dingyou,
corresponding to 1717, all below a narrow diaper band at the rim. The base is unglazed.
23 in. (58.4 cm.) diam.
$50,000-80,000

PROVENANCE
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 9 June 1965.
The present jardinière illustrates a scene and the text from the famous Ode to the Red Clif, composed
by the celebrated Northern Song poet, Su Shi (1037-1096), to commemorate his trips to the historical
battlefeld of the Red Clif during his political exile.
A Kangxi-period blue and white brush pot decorated with a similar scene on one side and inscribed
on the reverse with an excerpt from the Latter Ode to the Red Clif, was sold at Christie’s London,
6 November 2018, lot 196. See, also, the large blue and white ‘phoenix-tail’ dated by inscription to 1713
which is decorated with a very similar scene on one side and inscribed on the reverse with the Latter
Ode to the Red Clif, sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 2006, lot 284.
清康熙丁酉（1717年） 青花 「赤壁賦」 大缸
(inscription)

(another view)