Page 344 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

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A RARE LARGE POWDER-BLUE-GLAZED AND
GILT-DECORATED ‘PHOENIX-TAIL’ VASE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The elegantly potted vase has a powder-blue ground, and is
fnely gilt with four large panels on the exterior depicting scenes
from the Gengzhi Tu (‘Illustrations of Ploughing and Weaving’).
Two of the scenes depict silk production, and a further two depict
agriculture, accompanied by their respective inscriptions. The
interior of the faring neck is unusually decorated in the famille
verte palette with a band of four evenly-divided precious objects,
babao, each within a bracket cartouche against a ground of
interlinked cash symbols.
28 in. (71 cm.) high
$30,000-50,000

The four scenes depicted in gilt are from woodblock prints
known as the Gengzhi Tu, (‘Illustrations of Ploughing and
Weaving’) that were produced in printed form in 1696. The
Kangxi Emperor instructed prints to be made based on original
paintings by the court artist, Jiao Bingzhen, which comprised
twenty-three illustrations of farming, and an equal number of
silk production.
Each vignette on the present remarkable vase is fnely rendered
in gilt and is accompanied by a short descriptive verse
summarizing the scene. The two depicting silk production
represent ‘changing trays’ and ‘selection of cocoons’, and the
two from agricultural scenes depict ‘threshing’ and ‘pounding’.
Originally these illustrations served as didactic material for
teaching princes and oficials the importance of agricultural
and sericulture, although in their woodblock form these images
provided templates for many diferent types of works of art
in the Qing dynasty. Scenes of ‘ploughing and weaving’ were
particularly popular on Kangxi-period famille verte wares, many
times accompanied by a descriptive inscription, such as a dish
sold at Christie’s New York, 14-15 September 2017, lot 1194,
with a scene of farmers sifting rice. The themes also extended
into a variety of media such as a carved spinach-green jade
brush pot, illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade: From the
Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp. 407-408, fg. 29:18; and
scenes on a mother-of-pearl screen dated to the frst quarter of
18th century, sold at Christie’s London, 10 June 1996, lot 212.
A pair of related, large powder-blue and gilt phoenix-tail vases
with landscape scenes and inscriptions are in the Schloss
Fasanerie, Eichenzell, Germany.
清康熙 灑藍釉描金 「耕織圖 」 紋鳳尾尊

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