Page 96 - Metropolitan Museum Collection September 2016

AFTERNOON SESSION AT 2.00 PM (detail)
(LOTS 870-1004)

870

A LARGE AND FINELY DECORATED FAMILLE
VERTE ROULEAU VASE

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

The tall body is fnely decorated with two registers of shaped panels
depicting auspicious animals including a tiger, a phoenix, a lion,
ducks and peacocks, and one panel depicting archaistic vessels
containing fowers and scholar’s objects, all reserved on a yellow
ground painted with lotus scroll. The neck is decorated with further
scroll on a green ground and is separated into two registers by a
bow-string band.
28æ in. (73 cm.) high, wood stand

$60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE

John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) Collection.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessioned in 1960.

清康熙 五彩開光鳥獸博古圖大棒槌瓶

來源
小約翰．戴維森． 洛克菲勒（1874-1960）珍藏。
紐約大都會藝術博物館，入藏於1960年。

It was not until 1913 that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a noted John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (1839-1937), son of
collector of European paintings and textiles, discovered Chinese J.D. Rockefeller, photographed upon his return from
ceramics, when he was looking for two vases to adorn the Egypt, March 29th, 1929. Culver Pictures/The Art
mantelpiece of his New York home at 10 West 45th Street. By Archive at Art Resource, New York.
1915, when J.P. Morgan died and his porcelain collection was
sold by the art dealer Joseph Duveen, Rockefeller’s interest in
the feld was fully sparked. Duveen offered the Morgan ceramics
to Rockefeller, Henry Clay Frick, and Joseph E. Widener. The
scale of John D., Jr.’s desired purchase of the Morgan porcelains,
however, was great enough to necessitate a loan of some $2
million from his father, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. “I have never
squandered money on horses, yachts, automobiles or other foolish
extravagances,” the collector wrote in a letter outlining his
request. “A fondness for these porcelains is my only hobby – the
only thing on which I have cared to spend money. I have found
their study a great recreation and diversion, and I have become
very fond of them…. The money put into these porcelains is
not lost or squandered… I think you do not realize how much I
should like to do it, for you do not know the beauty and charm
of these works of art…” (R. Fosdick,John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,
A Portrait, New York, 1956, p. 335) John D., Sr. duly gifted
the required funds, and a collection of exceptional beauty and
provenance was born. In the decades to come, John D., Jr., would
further advance his assemblage of Chinese ceramics through
personal scholarship and a commitment to acquiring the very best.

According to his biographer, Rockefeller would spend hours
examining and contemplating his objects. To display the pieces to
their full potential, he had noted architect Welles Bosworth design
stands for them. Many of the stands featured stabilizing clips
painted to conform to the design of the porcelain, as seen on the
present vase and others in this catalogue.

94