Page 155 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

to capture and retain, as if frozen in time, the fluidity of the fajue baogao/Report of Archaeological Excavation at Famen
material at the moment of their creation. When the present Temple, Beijing, 2007, vol. 1, p. 212, fig. 141: 1 and p. 218, fig.
bowl was blown, the huge glass bubble created its own 145: 2, and vol. 2, col. pls 182, 189: 1 and 191: 2).
distinctive, slightly undulating outline, as the material was While no close glass comparison for this shape can be
slightly sagging due to its own weight. The craftsmanship in cited, ceramic vessels of this alms bowl shape were created
blowing such a huge vessel is remarkable and clearly did not already before the Tang dynasty, for example, by the Xingtai
constitute an every-day task for the artisan who created it.
kilns of Hebei in the Sui dynasty (Xingtai Suidai Xing yao [The
Actual glass vessels of the Tang dynasty are few and far Xing kilns of the Sui dynasty at Xingtai], Beijing, 2006, pp.
between and no example approaching the monumentality 69-73 and col. pl. 4).
of the present piece appears to have been published. One of Paul Houo-Ming-Tse [Huo Mingzhi, alias Paul Houo] (1880?-
the most important pieces would seem to be a large (29 cm) 1949?), the former owner of this bowl, was an orphan,
stem tray, whose use in ceremonies in the Tōdai-ji, Nara, is who grew up in Tianjin where he was educated by French
recorded for the year 752. It is preserved in the Shōsō-in, missionaries. In 1906 he became a dealer in antiques and
Nara, the storehouse of the personal belongings of Emperor curios and opened his Ta-kou-tchai [Daguzhai, Studio for
Shōmu (r. 724-749), whose personal effects were donated Understanding Antiquity] store in Beijing. Dealing in a very
to the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji Although according to wide array of antiques, many of them procured in Shanxi
Ellen Johnston Laing, there are different opinions as to its province, he quickly gained knowledge and expertise in
provenance, its shape so closely replicates contemporary many different fields. He aimed at being seen as a scholar
Chinese ceramic forms, that a Chinese origin would seem and to teach his clients, both about genuine articles and
most likely. The yellowish tone of the glass seems to be forgeries, a subject he also published a small book about,
similar to that of the present bowl, and it shows a similar both in Chinese and French. In 1932 he sold part of his
domed centre, caused by the way it was blown or removed collection, including the present bowl, at Hôtel Drouot in
from the blowpipe (Shen Congwen, Boli shihua/History of Paris, and another part through J.C. Morgenthau & Co in
Glassware, ed. Li Zhitan, Shenyang, 2004, p. 166; and Ellen New York, where concurrently he exhibited a group of fakes
Johnston Laing, ‘A Report on Western Asian Glassware in for educational purposes (see Susan Naquin, ‘Paul Houo,
the Far East’, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, vol. 5, A Dealer in Antiquities in Early Twentieth Century Peking’,
1991, p. 117, fig. 22).
Études chinoises, Revue de l’Association française d’études
Sometime before 874, exquisite glass vessels, both of chinoises, vol. XXXIV, no. 2, 2015, pp. 203-244).
foreign origin and of utterly Chinese shape and make, André Portier (?-1963) founded Cabinet Portier & Associés,
were selected by the imperial household to be donated to an appraisal firm for Asian art still in existence today in Paris,
the Famen Temple near Xi’an, one of the Empire’s most as part of the company Henri Portier & Co, who since the
important temples, since it held a Buddha bone, one of 19th century specialised in the import of silk from East Asia.
the holiest Buddhist relics. Several times during the Tang In 1908, André Portier organised his first sale of Chinese
dynasty was this bone transported with great pomp to art. Japanese prints and ceramics from his collection were
the imperial palace and, after a short stay there, returned sold through Beaussant Lefèvre and Christie’s at Hôtel
to the Temple in a lavish procession together with rich Drouot, Paris, 21st June 2016, and the catalogue contains
imperial gifts. The imperial donations it received were clearly the following statement by his three grandsons: “We have
chosen for their sumptuousness and rarity, representing learnt to love Asian art with our grandfather, André Portier,
the best to be had. Besides large quantities of gold and not having known Henri Portier, our great-grandfather. In
silver, silk brocades, and the finest ‘secret colour’ (mi se) his apartment, 9 rue Vignon, right under the flat of Jean
porcelains, the Tang emperors’ gifts included twenty pieces Cocteau and Jean Marais, a room was dedicated to Asia.
of foreign and Chinese glass. Among them is a light blue This room was opened to us when we were still very young, a
glass dish with a similar emphasised lip and domed centre museum where touching the objects was allowed. Japanese
with corresponding pontil mark on the base (fig. 3). A bowl and Chinese legends came to life in the stories told by our
with straight sides (fig. 4) and the famous tea cup and cup grandfather and through these Asian objects that we could
stand, which is obviously of Chinese workmanship, all have manipulate as we pleased.”
a similar yellowish tint as the present bowl (Famensi kaogu