Page 250 - Christie's, NYC Important Chinese Works Of Art Sept. 22-23, 2022

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
930
A RARE ‘EEL SKIN’-GLAZED `NARCISSUS BOWL’ 重要私人珍藏
YONGZHENG FOUR-CHARACTER IMPRESSED SEAL MARK AND OF
THE PERIOD (1723-1735) 清雍正 鱔魚黃釉菱口三足水仙盆 四字篆書款
The shallow rounded sides are divided by slender ribs into twelve lobes that 來源:
rise to an everted rim with raised outer rim molded with six barbed petal tips 長谷氏, 東京, 1953年
conforming to the shape of the foot ring, which is raised on three ruyi-head 史蒂芬・瓊肯三世 (1904-1978) 珍藏
supports. The bowl is covered overall with a finely mottled glaze of deep olive 紐約佳士得, 2008 年 9 月 17 日, 拍品編號484
tone thinning to russet or ochre on the raised edges and to a dark reddish- 展覽:
brown in the center, with seven spur marks in a circle on the base. 借展: 納爾遜-阿特金斯藝術博物館, 密蘇里州堪薩斯城, 2013-2017年
8 in. (20.3 cm.) across, cloth box
$300,000-500,000

PROVENANCE:
Nagatani, Tokyo, 1953.
Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978) Collection.
Christie’s New York, 17 September 2008, lot 484.
EXHIBITED:
On loan: Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2013-2017.
(mark)

This superb ‘eel-skin’-glazed tripod vessel was formerly in the collection
of Stephen Junkunc, III, one of the most renowned collectors in America
of Chinese ceramics and works of art. His collection consisted of a wide
breadth of works of the highest standards of quality. At its height, the
Junkunc collection comprised over two-thousand examples of porcelain, jade,
bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and paintings, and included two examples of the
legendary Ru ware, of which only eighty-seven are known in the world.
Stephen Junkunc, III was born in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to
the US as a young boy. His father, Stephen Junkunc, II was a tool-and-die
maker who founded General Machinery & Manufacturing Company in 1918
on South Aberdeen Street in Chicago, focusing on the manufacture of
knife-edge fuel nozzle heads. In 1933, the company moved to North Keeler
Street, where it still exists today. With the outbreak of World War II, GMMCO
endeavored to help in the war effort by manufacturing various aircraft parts,
specializing in aircraft engine seals.

Stephen Junkunc, III began collecting in earnest in the 1940s, and his most
ardent buying period was in the 1950s and 1960s. His collecting was always
informed by diligent study—he kept vast libraries at both his home and in his
office and read voraciously, whether quickly over a short lunch break or at
a more leisurely pace into the small hours of the morning. When acquiring
objects for his collection, he only dealt with the most renowned dealers of
the mid-twentieth century, including Bluett & Sons, Sparks, Yamanaka &
Co., Ltd., C. T. Loo & Cie, Tonying & Company and Hisazo Nagatani. The
Chicago-based gallery of Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., which had opened in 1928,
played a particularly strong role in Junkunc’s voracious passion for collecting.
Nagatani (d. 1994), formerly the manager of Yamanaka in Chicago, was
among the most influential advisors to Stephen Junkunc, III, supplying works
to the collection for over thirty years.
Today, the legacy of Stephen Junkunc, III has been preserved through his
generous donations to institutions throughout the United States and through
bequests from his collection found in the Milwaukee Public Museum in
Wisconsin and in the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, Florida.
His curatorial contribution to cultural patrimony is preserved in the countless
masterpieces that are housed in private collections all over the world,
including the present teadust-glazed vessel that Christie’s is honored to offer.
Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). Photographer unknown.
史蒂芬‧瓊肯三世 (1978年逝) (two views)

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