Page 20 - Bonhams Chinese & Asian Works of Art Los Angelis December 14 2020

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TWO POLYCHROME ENAMELED PORCELAIN PLAQUES
Republic Period or possibly later
Both of tall rectangular section, the first depicting a scholar in his
retreat in a riverside landscape beneath a poetic fourteen character
inscription; the second depicting realistic insects amid pendulous
hanging gourds and vines, the lengthy inscription including a Bingyan
date (equivalent to 1926 or 1986) and signature and seals by an
unidentified artist with the family name Yu.
14 1/4 and 15in (36 and 38cm) visible heights of porcelain (2).

$2,000 - 3,000
The Second:
Published and exhibited
Masterworks of Chinese Art. The Rosalind Ching Pastor Collection.
Catalogue of an exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts July 28 -
Sept 25, 2005. Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2005.
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A QIANJIANGCAI ENAMELED PLAQUE
Late Qing dynasty
Rendered in the typical soft pastel palette, the tall rectangular plaque
depicting the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ - a gnarled trunk of pine,
blooming prunus blossoms, and leafy stalks of bamboo, the inscription
including the artists name Yanggu with additional red seals reading Luo
shi and zhi yin, and the cyclical date possibly reading yiwei (equivalent
to 1895).
16 3/4in (42.5cm) visible height of porcelain
$1,500 - 2,500

Qianjiangcai or ‘pastel palette’ enamels reflected the Late Qing potter’s
inability to produce the more technically demanding vibrant colors of
the earlier High Qing or the later Republic period. To borrow a modern
aphorism however, the determined late Qing artisans turned this ‘bug’
22 into a ‘feature:’ the dreamlike faintness of these colors became popular
with the melancholy intelligentsia of the time and led to masterworks
by the best: Cheng Men (1833-1908) and Jin Pinqing (1862-1908)
the most renowned. The present lot bearing a signature reading Luo
18 | BONHAMS Yanggu seems to be a fine example of this tradition.