Page 34 - Sothebys Imperial Falancai Bowl Kangxi Hong Kong
P. 34

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           PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION

           A SUPERBLY ENAMELLED,
           FINE AND EXCEEDINGLY

           RARE PINK-GROUND
           FALANGCAI BOWL

           PUCE-ENAMEL YUZHI MARK
           AND PERIOD OF KANGXI

           conjured out of immaculate kaolin clay with steep rounded   PROVENANCE
           sides flaring out just barely at the rim, fired plain in the   K.K. Chow, Shanghai, 1930/31.
           imperial kilns in Jingdezhen and thereafter carted off to the   Bluett & Sons, London, 1931.
           Imperial Workshops beyond the walls of the Forbidden City   Collection of Martin Erdmann, acquired in 1931.
           in Beijing, most delicately painted using imported enamels   Christie’s London, 17th November 1937, lot 73 (part lot).
           finely ground and blended with four five-lobed azure-ground   Bluett & Sons, London.
           window panels the colour of a fair morning sky, each revealing   Collection of Henry M. Knight (d. 1971), The Hague, Holland,
           respectively, narcissus with cinnamon rose, hibiscus, poppy   acquired in 1938.
           with tuberose, and gardenia with mallow, each cluster with   Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20th May 1986, lot 123.
           its characteristic stem and leaf, the panels reserved on a   Collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.
           radiant pink enamel ground studded at the rim with single
           chrysanthemum sprays overturned, their petals dramatically   EXHIBITED
           jutting out towards the viewer, encircled round the footring   Oosterse Schatten: 4,000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst,
           by broad green leaves overlapping blue petals, centred with   Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 368, illustrated pl. 23.
           a multi-coloured florette, the emphatic European manner   Ceramics that Fascinated Emperors – Treasures of the
           hinting the hand of a Jesuit master, the interior left white, the   Chinese Jingdezhen Kiln from the Idemitsu Collection,
           four character Kangxi yuzhi mark inscribed in puce enamel on   Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 2003, listed in the
           the base within a square, the enamels brilliantly fired on the   catalogue.
           premises
           14.7 cm, 5¾ in.                               LITERATURE
                                                         Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Les Poteries et Porcelaines
           Estimate Upon Request                         Chinoises, Paris, 1978 (1957), pl. XXV D.
                                                         Sotheby’s Hong Kong – Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong,
                                                         1993, pl. 215.
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