Page 74 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

72 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK 14 MARCH 2017 MING: THE INTERVENTION OF IMPERIAL TASTE

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

A SUPERBLY PAINTED RARE
BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON’ BRUSH WASHER
XUANDE MARK AND PERIOD

nely potted, of ten-lobed mallow form with gently aring Thomas Arthur Clarke ( .1871) Emmeline
sides resting on a countersunk base of corresponding
form, the interior superbly painted in rich cobalt blue with Clarke Matthews 1962 Springfort
a medallion enclosing a ve-clawed dragon, with ames
issuing from its anks, plunging and writhing amidst ruyi- Hall
form cloud scrolls, framed within double-line borders
repeated around the rim, the exterior painted with ten Lillian Mabel Hebbert Matthews (1891-1976)
roundels of alternately leaping and plunging dragons amidst
clouds, between double-line borders, the underglaze-cobalt Patrick Robert Ievers (1940-2015)
of rich midnight-blue with pronounced characteristic areas (Priestley & Ferraro)
of ‘heaping and piling’, the base with the six-character mark
within a double-circle Thomas Arthur Emmeline Clarke

Diameter 8⅛ in., 20.7 cm Thomas Arthur Clarke Thomas

PROVENANCE Clarke (1834-1911) Allerton Hall
Collection of Captain Thomas Arthur (b. 1871) and
Emmeline Clarke, née Matthews (d. 1962), Springfort Hall, Thomas Clarke
Mallow, Co Cork, Ireland, and thence by descent.
Collection of Lilian Mabel Hebbert, née Matthews (1891- 1929 1 29 Thomas
1976), and thence by descent.
Collection of Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Robert Ievers Clarke 1926
(1940-2015).
Priestley & Ferraro, London. Allerton Hall

Whilst it is unknown how this magni cent washer
entered the collection of Captain Thomas Arthur and his
wife Emmeline Clarke prior to 1962, it is possible that
it had previously belonged to Captain Clarke’s father,
Thomas Clarke (1834-1911) of Allerton Hall, Liverpool,
England. Thomas Clarke was a noted collector of English
watercolors, some of which were sold at Christie’s London,
29th January 1929. His wife and children presented Allerton
Hall to the city of Liverpool in 1926.

$ 1,500,000-2,500,000