Page 86 - Bonhams May 16, 2019 London Asian Art

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A LARGE BLUE AND WHITE ‘LADIES IN GARDEN’ JAR, GUAN The present lot is rare for its size, and decoration of roundels with
16th century ladies. The designs are possibly taken from woodblock prints of
The heavily-potted vessel of shouldered hexagonal form with gently popular stories that proliferated in the late Ming period and reflect an
rounded sides and a short neck, finely painted with six ogival panels era of social change and economic prosperity. The famous late Ming
depicting garden scenes with court ladies engaging in various leisurely philosopher Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602) even declared in his ironically
pursuits, set between stylised floral scrolls, above a band of palmettes titled Book to be Burned (焚書) that women were equally intelligent to
reserved on a blue ground, the shoulder with a diaper band enclosing men and took female students, much to general surprise. Celebrity
shaped panels with qilin and tripod incense burners, the neck with a courtesans accomplished in the genteel arts of music and literature
further diaper band containing panels decorated with flower heads. entered male society, heralding a new model of feminine identity
34cm (13 3/8in)high. almost equal to the male literati. The present jar reflects this interest
in accomplished females, and celebrates them as being refined. See
£25,000 - 30,000 S.McCausland and Lizhong Ling, Telling Images of China: Narrative
CNY220,000 - 260,000 and Figure Paintings 15th-20th Century from the Shanghai Museum,
London, 2010, pp.65-67.
十六世紀 青花開光庭園仕女圖大罐

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84 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.