Page 134 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

PROPERTY FROM THE DENLINGER FAMILY COLLECTION

2284
A PAIR OF GILT-DECORATED BLUE-GROUND VASES

GUANGXU SIX-CHARACTER GILT MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1875-1908)

Each vase is gilt-decorated on the blue-glazed body with a pair of fve-clawed dragons in

pursuit of a faming pearl, amidst fames and stylized clouds, above a band of cresting waves

and below a band of shou characters and lotus sprays. The waisted neck is similarly decorated

with rows of shou character roundels interspersed by bats and wan symbols below a band of ruyi

borders surrounding the neck.

15¡ in. (39.1 cm.) high (2)

$15,000-20,000

PROVENANCE:

Paul B. Denlinger (1921-1989), acquired in China, prior to 1950 and thence by descent
within the family.

The combination of dragons on the lower body and shou-character roundels on the neck appears to
be very rare design and no other example of this design appears to be published.

Gilt-decorated blue-ground vases of this shape with Guangxu marks are found with varied auspicious
decoration. A slightly larger vase (16º in.) decorated with bats in fight amidst clouds, and a band
of shou characters alternating with fowers on the shoulder and fower scroll surrounding the mark
on the base, was sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1432. Another vase (15º in.)
decorated with small medallions of animals, shou characters and yin and yang motifs surrounded by
the Eight Daoist Trigrams, is illustrated in National Museum of History: Major Holdings of the National
Museum of History, Taipei, 1988, p. 72. See, also, the vase from the Kwan Collection included in
the exhibition, Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 13 August - 25
September 1983, no. 126. Examples of blue-ground gilt-decorated vases with dragons on both the
lower body and neck include a Guangxu-marked vase of comparable size sold at Christie’s New York,
19 September 2013, lot 1352 and a pair sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2014, lot 2200.

清光緒 藍地描金雙龍戲珠紋瓶一對 描金六字楷書款

(mark)

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