Page 110 - November 2016 London Bonhams asian Art

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A FAMILLE VERTE ‘FOUR ARTS’
ROULEAU VASE
Kangxi
Finely enamelled with a continuous scene
of ten ladies in a terraced garden indulging
in the Four Arts of the scholar, with a lady
playing the qin, another two pursuing poetry,
a pair playing weiqi in front of an elaborate
dragon screen and a final three appreciating a
scroll painting, the shoulder with cartouches
containing the attributes, the straight neck
decorated with bamboo sprays. 46.5cm (18
1/4in) high

£7,000 - 10,000
CNY60,000 - 86,000 HK$70,000 - 100,000

The present vase is notable for both the
rare subject matter, which sees court ladies
as the main actors in the ‘Four Arts’ of
poetry, painting, music and weiqi, normally
associated with the scholar-gentleman, and
for the remarkably accomplished execution of
the painting.

Whilst it is known that in later Imperial
Chinese society, women were confined to
the home and were not encouraged to be
educated, during the late Ming dynasty,
against a background of social change and
economic prosperity, some women managed
to challenge these conventions. The advent
of the once nomadic Qing Dynasty, whose
women did not bind their feet, introduced
further elements of social change; the new
attitude towards female education can be
evinced from literary references, such as the
poetic exploits of Bao Yu’s lady companions
Lin Daiyu and Bao Chai in Dream of a Red
Chamber.

It is perhaps thus that, in the early Qing
Dynasty, we find a number of vases and
dishes decorated with ladies engaging in
the ‘Four Arts’, or other activities normally
reserved for men. Particularly similar to the
present vase is the painting on a dish sold
in these salerooms, 9 May 2016, lot 61. For
further examples of vases depicting ladies
engaging in the ‘Four Arts’, see The Tsui
Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing
Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no.93; M-C.Rey,
Les Très Riches Heures de la Cour de Chine,
Paris, 2006, no.35; and the Victoria and
Albert Museum, reference c.11246-1910.

A famille verte vase of similar subject and size
was sold in our New Bond Street Salerooms,
The Roy Davids Collection of Chinese
Ceramics, 6 November 2014, lot 54.

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