Page 174 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017

Xunyang jiu pai [Nine Tributaries of the Xunyang], a river
scenery in Jiujiang, which is bordered on one side with houses
on stilts in front of a city wall with a double-roofed gate and
willows and pink-flowering trees in the foreground, on the other
shore boats are moored and people are visiting a pavilion, with
reed-covered fishing boats nearby and sailing boats in mid-
river, one tucking a rowing boat along.
Teng[wang]ge gao feng [Lofty Scenery at the Pavillion of
Prince Teng] shows a famous pavilion at the Gan river in
Xinjian county that has its origins in the early Tang dynasty
and was immortalized in a poem by Wang Bo (AD 649-
76), depicted as a building with curved roofs on a terrace
overlooking a river with many sailing and rowing boats,
guarded on the other side by crenellated walls.
Xuting yan liu [Misty Willows at the Xu Pavilion], a site in
Jiujiang depicting two impressive buildings with double roofs
with curved-up eaves connected by a multi-arched bridge
with an island with small houses among dense willow trees,
the white-washed gate to the bridge inscribed ...longqiao [...
Dragon Bridge], two fishermen in their boats with their nets
lowered to one side and a smaller one-hump bridge to the
other side next to crenellated walls partly hidden by clouds.
Baihua chun xiao [Spring Dawn at Hundred Flowers], shows
Baihua Island in East Lake in Nanchang, famous for a garden
laid out there by a Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) scholar,
and depicts people crossing a large green, where a pailou
(ceremonial arch) has been erected, one man with a shoulder
pole, another with a staff, one on a mule followed by an
attendant with an umbrella, a walled compound with willows
beyond identified as Donghu Shuyuan [East Lake College],
further buildings built into the water, connected by a dyke with
further willows that leads to a small walled compound with a
commemorative stele, with a ferryboat and many fishing boats
surrounding the island, some with lowered nets.
Shangqing sheng jing [Scenic Spot of Shangqing] renders a
Daoist temple devoted to Shangqing, one of the ‘Three Pure
Ones’ in Guixi county, its multi-coloured roofs nestled among
dramatic steep blue-green cliffs and surrounded by clouds,
with the path leading over a bridge past a figure of a seated
stone lion on a pedestal, through a ceremonial arch up broad
steps to a front gate inscribed Shangqinggong [‘Shangqing
Palace’], with people in boats travelling along a river nearby
and a waterfall rushing down from a rock face opposite.
Magu xian tan [Altar of the Immortal Magu], depicts the altar of
the Daoist Immortal Magu on Mount Magu in Nancheng, with
a temple hall built to overhang steep rocky cliffs, partly hidden Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Weishaupt/Chinese Porcelain
among clouds, next to a waterfall, another further down, visible
through a large circular ‘gateway’ formed by a natural rock
formation, and a third building high up on a platform with a
vista onto steep cloud-enveloped hills, with pines in the valley
and a red sun in the sky.
172 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
Lushan pubu [Lushan Waterfall] depicts a dramatic waterfall
near Poyang Lake among steep blue-green mountains, with
a thatched hut below, a pagoda and temple building to one
side and further temple halls among pine trees high up in the
blue-green mountains, with people climbing up the steep stone
steps.
Xishan die cui [Layers of Kingfisher Blue in the Western
Mountains] shows the mountainous landscape of Xishan,
southwest of Nanchang, with the waterfall, crossed by a
covered walkway, continuing as a winding stream with a bridge
in the foreground and group of buildings behind a wall with a
triple gateway further away, inscribed with a temple name.
Yuling ji xue [Snow Piling up on Yu Mountain Range] is the title
of a snowy landscape in Dayu, also known as Meiling [Prunus
Blossom Mountain Range], showing people crossing snow-
covered mountain ranges on mules or on foot, the roofs of a
tall gateway and other buildings laden with snow, and overall
red-flowering prunus and evergreen trees lending colour.
Nanpu fei yun [Nanpu Flying Clouds], a scenic spot southwest
of Nanchang, also described by the Tang poet Wang Bo, shows
a lakeside view with a tall pagoda and other buildings in the
foreground, islets with pavilions among willow trees at the
other shore and fishing boats dotted about on the water.
This set depicts famous scenic spots of the region around
Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, where the bowls were made.
The different scenes are outstanding in their dramatic
composition, quality of the painting and the range of enamel
colours. Geng Baochang mentions as characteristic of the
Jiaqing reign finely potted and painted porcelains decorated
with ten famous views of various areas, such as Ten Views of
West Lake, in Hangzhou, Ten Views of Changjiang, the Yangzi
River, Ten Views of Lushan, a mountain in Jiangxi, and Ten
Views of Dongting, a lake in Hunan; see Geng Baochang, Ming
Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong
Kong, 1993, p. 293.
This set appears, however, to be unique and similar complete
sets of ten bowls do not appear to have been otherwise
published; a single Jiaqing bowl inscribed Magu xian tan, from
the collection of Yokogawa Tamisuke is included in Tōkyo
Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku: Chūgoku tōji hen/
Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese
Ceramics, Tokyo, 1988-90, vol. 2, no. 672; another inscribed
Shangqing sheng jing in the Weishaupt collection is illustrated
in Gunhild Avitabile, Vom Schatz der Drachen/From the
Dragon’s Treasure: Chinesisches Porzellan des 19. und 20.
from the 19th and 20th Centuries in the Weishaupt Collection,
London, 1987, cat. no. 20.