Page 118 - Sotheby's May 10th 2017 London Important Chinese Art

224

PROPERTY FROM AN ASIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION Notable for its dynamic design of sinuous dragons, this piece
belongs to a distinct group of biscuit vases covered in a yellow
A RARE YELLOW GLAZED INCISED glaze made in the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns. This vase,
PEAR SHAPED ‘DRAGON’ VASE however, is a particularly unusual example as it bears the hall
SHI GAN CAO TANG HALL MARK, QIANLONG mark Shi gan cao tang (Thatched cottage by the brook). A
PERIOD copper-red glazed moon ask also inscribed with this mark, in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is discussed by Ming
the slightly spreading foot rising to a rounded body and tall Wilson in the catalogue to the exhibition Rare Marks on Chinese
cylindrical neck, incised with two ve-clawed lively dragons Ceramics, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London,
contesting a ‘ aming pearl’, above a band of keyfret at the 1998, p. 116, where she suggests that the mark references
foot, covered in a deep yellow glaze, the base incised with the one of the songs in the Shijing (Book of Changes) on the joy of
four-character hall mark home. Hence the mark may imply that the thatched cottage of
31.4 cm, 12⅜ in. the owner of this piece was ‘an agreeable dwelling place’. This
mark is also found on a double-gourd vase covered in a ge-type
PROVENANCE glaze, discussed by Geng Baochang in Mingqing ciqi jianding,
Christie’s New York, 21st September 2004, lot 249. Hong Kong, 1993, p. 383; and a turquoise-glazed vase included
in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Monochrome Ceramics of
಴£ 60,000-80,000 Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong
HK$ 580,000-775,000 US$ 74,500-99,500 Kong, 1977, cat. no. 52.

2004 9 21 249 A vase of this type, but attributed to the Jiaqing reign, was
included in the exhibition Ethereal Elegance. Porcelain Vases of
the Imperial Qing, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong, 2007, cat. no. 55; another was included
in the exhibition From the Dragon’s Treasure, Museum für
Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1987, cat. no. 2. Compare a
similarly decorated tianqiuping included in the exhibition The
World in Monochromes, Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and
African Studies, London, 2009, cat. no. 185; and another sold
in these rooms, 29th April 1997, lot 602. See also an ovoid
vase incised with a ower scroll, with a Jiaqing mark and of
the period, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in
the Museum’s exhibition Qingdai dansi you ciqi [Monochrome
porcelain of the Qing dynasty], Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 35.

116 SOTHEBY’S