Page 92 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

Fig.1 The present tray and lacquer cover as illustrated in Auction for property from the collection of the Duke of Tokugawa,
Tokyo Bijutsu Club, 1918.

The present tray is exceptionally rare, and very few related examples appear All these comparable trays illustrate the same scene of a monkey stealing a
to have been published: one example was donated by Roy Leventritt to the peach from a tree, while a dragon fies through clouds. The painting style and
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and was included in an exhibition at composition of the Yokogawa Tamisuke example is particularly close to that
China Institute, New York, and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, on the present tray. It is also noteworthy that the comparable examples do
Trade Taste and Transformation. Jingdezhen Porcelain for Japan 1620-1645, not appear to be accompanied by a carved lacquer cover, unlike the present
New York, 2006, pp. 52-53, no. 21 (the same tray is also illustrated by S. tray.
Kikutaro, Kosometsuke [Ancient Blue and White Porcelain], Tokyo, 1962, no.
26). Another example is illustrated in Tokyo National Museum. Masterpieces The comparable examples are, however, all inscribed with the same poem,
of Chinese Ceramics. The Yokogawa Tamisuke Collection, Tokyo, 2012, p. reading fei long zai tian, hua yuan yu tao (‘Flying dragon in the sky transforms
094, no. 74; a third is illustrated by S. Yamaguchi and K. Yoshikawa, The Y.Y the monkey near the peach tree’). This inscription probably refers to an
Collection. Rediscovering Nagasaki, Nagasaki, 2014, p. 10 and front cover; and episode in the late Ming popular novel Journey to the West, in which the
a fourth is illustrated by K. Hayashi, Kosometsuke (Ancient Blue and White trouble-maker Monkey King steals peaches from the tree of immortality, and
Porcelain), Sekido Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2017, p. 82, no. 26.

(another view with wood cover)

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