Page 302 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

THE PROPERTY OF A SOUTHEAST ASIAN COLLECTOR

1586

A LARGE BLUE AND WHITE SQUARE
VASE
KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF
THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

The faceted vase is stoutly potted with tall
tapering sides, and is decorated on two
sides with fgures and attendants engaged in
leisurely pursuits in a riverscape, and on the
other two sides with lengthy inscriptions
relating to two Odes to the Red Cliff by the
Song dynasty poet, Su Dongpo.

19º in. (49 cm.) high

$15,000-20,000

PROVENANCE

Christie’s London, 15 November 2000, lot
245.

The inscriptions recount two Odes to the Red
Clif by the Song poet, Su Dongpo, and the
landscapes illustrate scenes from the odes. See
Julia B. Curtis’ paper ‘Markets and Motifs on
Seventeenth Century Porcelain from Jingdezhen’,
in The Porcelains of Jingdezhen, Colloquies on
Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 16, Percival David
Foundation, London, 1992, pp. 144 and 145, for a
discussion on square blue and white ‘Red Clif’
vases, drawing particular attention to the most
frequently encountered, which are inscribed on
two sides with Su Dongpo’s ‘Odes to the Red
Clif’, such as on the present vase. Ms. Curtis
quotes an observation by Margaret Medley that
the painting of the landscapes on these vases
is executed “with a great refnement in a very
minute and careful style”.

A ‘Red Clif’ square vase, very similar to the
present example, in the Shanghai Museum,
is illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong
Kong, 1998, pp. 42 and 43, pl. 31; and another
similar vase is illustrated by Julia Curtis, Chinese
Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, New
York, 1995, p. 84, no. 26. Three further similar
examples from his own collection, are illustrated
by Sir Michael Butler, ‘Chinese Porcelain at the
Beginning of Qing’, Transactions of the Oriental
Ceramic Society 1984-1985, London, 1986, pls. 38
- 40, and discussed pp. 33-36.
清康熙 青花「赤壁賦」大方瓶 六字楷書款

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