Page 126 - Fine Asian Works of Art December 19, 2016, SF

8196 8196
A PAIR OF PANELS INLAID WITH QIANJIANGCAI ENAMELED
8197 PLAQUES
124 | BONHAMS Dated by inscription to 1903
Of tall vertical section, each enclosing four smaller plaques of circular,
fan, and quadrilobate shapes enameled in the 'pastel colored' palette,
depicting scholars, birds and flowers, beauties in gardens, and river
landscapes, each inscribed with a Kuimao date, the studio name
Houzhai xuan, and a different four-character poetic title.
49 1/2in (125.2cm) total height of panel
9in (22.9cm) visible height of tallest porcelain plaque

US$8,000 - 12,000

Simon Kwan in The Muwen Tang Series: Chinese Porcelain of the
Republic Period [Muwen Tang Shoucang Quanji: Minguo Ciqi] (Hong
Kong: Muwen Tang Fine Arts Publication Ltd, 2008) describes the
works of the ceramicists of the late Qing period as a 'literati school'
who worked in 'easily abraded [and] not long lasting' qianjiang
pigments 'that are pale in colouration [sic] and delicate in feeling' (34-
35).

The present lot does not seem to bear the signature of any of the more
well-known of these late Qing ceramicists. However, the fact that the
figures, landscapes, and birds and flowers are rendered in the style of
more famous artists of the Qing period such as Yun Shouping or Chen
Hongshou, seems typical of the artistic choices made by this group.
For an in-depth discussion of their possible painterly inspirations,
see Anthony Evans' essay written for the preface of his catalog of
'The Anthony Evans Collection of Later Chinese Porcelain' offered at
Bonhams New Bond Street Sale 18981 of 10 November 2011.

8197
TWO PORCELAIN PLAQUES
Late Qing/Republic period
Now mounted in the same double paneled vertical rectangular wood
frame; the top plaque of tall section depicting a walled mountain village
beside a large waterway, perhaps the West Lake as indicated by the
reference to Suzhou and the Hanshan Temple in the faint and partially
effaced inscription; the bottom plaque of smaller horizontal section,
likely a fragment of a larger work, again depicting a mountainous river
landscape of boats and a small pavilion.
29 1/2in (75cm) total height of frame
13 and 5in (33 and 12.6cm) visible heights of porcelain

US$2,000 - 3,000

The style of the landscape of the bottom plaque seems to be that of
Wang Xiaoting (died 1970) or his school, including notably one of his
eponymous pavilions. Compare for example Simon Kwan, The Muwen
Tang Collection Series: Chinese Porcelain of the Republic Period
[Muwen Tang Shoucang Quanji: Minguo Ciqi] (Hong Kong: Muwen
Tang Fine Arts Publication ltd, 2008) 262-3, no 103.