Page 271 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

1550 1550

A LONGQUAN CELADON SHRINE OF THE 1551
SOUTH SEA GUANYIN
EARLY MING DYNASTY, 14TH-15TH CENTURY 269

The fgure of Guanyin is left in the biscuit
and shown seated on a cloth-draped
ledge within a grotto framed by vertical
outcroppings of rocks and scrolling clouds
that rise towards further clouds and the
moon above, while two acolytes are shown
standing below.

10 in. (25.4 cm.) high

$10,000-15,000

The South Sea Guanyin is a manifestation of the
bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, particular to Chinese
Buddhism, who resides at her South Sea island
abode, Potalaka. For a further discussion of the
South Sea Guanyin see Kaikodo Journal, Spring
2000, pp. 224-25, no. 73, from the collection of
Stanley Herzman, later sold at Christie’s New
York, 20 September 2002, lot 308. Another
similar shrine was also sold at Christie’s New
York, 19-20 September 2013, lot 1285. See, also,
a shrine of larger size in the Illustrated Catalogue
of the Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics
II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 20, no. 520; and another
illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal
Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 68.
明十四/十五世紀 龍泉青釉南海觀音龕

1551

AN UNUSUAL SMALL LONGQUAN
CELADON CENSER AND COVER
MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY

The square censer is decorated on the sides
with foral sprigs and is supported on the
shoulders of four kneeling human fgures,
raised on an integral openwork base.
The cover is surmounted by a Buddhist
lion seated with its left paw resting on a
beribboned brocade ball. The whole is
covered in a glaze of sea-green color.

6Ω in. (16.5 cm.) high, Japanese wood box,
cloth cover

$12,000-18,000

明十六世紀 龍泉青釉鏤雕方爐