Page 319 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

ANOTHER PROPERTY

1605

A DEHUA FIGURE OF WENCHANG
17TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED SUN CHENGXIAN MARK

The fgure is well-modeled as Wenchang, the Daoist god of
Literature, seated on a pierced rocky ledge. He is wearing a long,
belted robe and an offcial’s hat, and holding a ruyi scepter in his left
hand, the other concealed within the sleeve. The glaze is of cool
white tone and pools in the recessed areas. The back is impressed with
a four-character maker’s mark, Sun Chengxian yin.

16Ω in. (41.9 cm.) high

$30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE

An important French collection, Saint Cloud, France.
Roger Duchange, Paris, 30 March 1992.

Wenchang, the deity who is represented as an earthly minister, is believed to
have assisted devotees in achieving success in the civil service examinations,
and is therefore regarded as one of the gods who will facilitate the path
to social acceptance and material rewards. A nearly identical fgure of
Wenchang, but bearing a He Chaozong yin maker’s mark, is in the Koger
Collection in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, The State Art
Museum of Florida, and is illustrated by S. Marchant & Son, in the exhibition
catalogue, Blanc de Chine, 1985, no. 3, p. 7. This fgure is also illustrated
by J. Ayers in Blanc de Chine, Divine Images in Porcelain, China Institute,
New York, 2002, p. 89, pl. 40. Another example is in the Hickley Collection,
Singapore, and is illustrated by R. Kerr and J. Ayers in Blanc de Chine,
Porcelain from Dehua, Chicago, 2002, no. 27. See, also, the similar fgure
without rockwork in the Fujian Provincial Museum, illustrated by Chen Cunxi
and C.T. Yeung in Dehua Wares, Hong Kong, 1990, no. 103, p. 115.

明末清初 德化白釉文昌坐像

(another view)

317