Page 301 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A PAINTED CANTON ENAMEL 清十八世紀 銅胎畫琺瑯人物
CISTERN, BASIN AND COVER 花卉圖水器連蓋盆
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
來源
the ovoid lobed cistern with a scene of leisurely
scholars in a garden, surmounted by a cover 阿姆斯特丹佳士得2008年6月24日，
with fruiting and flowering branches and 編號436（其一）
mounted on a rectangular yellow-ground panel Solomon Stodel Antiquités，阿姆斯特丹，
with a triangular top, with dense floral scrolls 2010年
and painted chain straps, the reverse with a
floral spray and the underside with blue foliate
scrollwork, the interior of the basin depicting
a scene from the Legend of the White Snake,
with Lu Dongbin holding a fly whisk in the upper
corner, the everted barbed mouthrim and
reticulated cover with further floral scrolls, the
sides with a blue band of archaistic kuilong and
the base with two confronting phoenix (4)
Height of cistern 20½ in., 52.1 cm
Width of basin 18 in., 45.6 cm
PROVENANCE
Christie’s Amsterdam, 24th June 2008, lot 436
(part lot).
Solomon Stodel Antiquités, Amsterdam, 2010.
Exuberantly and densely decorated, this
enameled copper cistern and basin set likely
contained water for drinking, or for diners to
wash their hands before or between meals. It is
rare to find a complete set. Compare a cistern,
without the basin, decorated in a very similar
manner but with a scene of ladies on the lobed
vessel, included in the exhibition China of All
Colours: Painted Enamels on Copper, Jorge
Welsh Works of Art, London & Lisbon, 2015,
cat. no. 28.
Two such cisterns, missing their covers and
back panels, are in the collection of The State
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. The
first, painted with a scene of scholars with
emblems of longevity, is illustrated in Tatiana
Arapova, Kitaĭskie raspisnnyeèmali: Sobranie
Gosudarstvennogo Ėrmitazha [Chinese
painted enamels in the collection of The State
Hermitage Museum], Moscow, 1988, pl. 4. The
second is painted with a border of grapes and
depicts a group of horses, acc. no. LI-688.
$ 30,000-50,000

CHINESE ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF HENRY H. ARNHOLD 299