Page 90 - November 2016 London Bonhams asian Art

177 179
A BLUE AND WHITE ‘ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER’ A BLUE AND WHITE ‘ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER’
BOWL SAUCER DISH
Jiajing six-character mark, 17th century
Kangxi six-character mark and of the period, Johanneum inventory Intricately painted with a battle scene between bandits and soldiers
mark N:489 amongst wispy clouds, with a fourteen-character inscription, a
The exterior finely painted with four scenes from the Yuan dynasty mountainous landscape rising in the distance.
drama, each enclosed in cloud-scroll cartouches, the well with five 15.5cm (6 1/8in) diam.
boys at play by a river, the interior mouth rim embellished with a diaper
band, the base incised with an inventory mark. 19.6cm (7 3/4in) diam. £1,500 - 2,000
CNY13,000 - 17,000 HK$15,000 - 20,000
£1,000 - 1,500
CNY8,600 - 13,000 HK$10,000 - 15,000 Provenance
Acquired from Sotheby’s, circa 1979, by repute.
Provenance
Christie’s, 19 October 1989, lot 51. Half way through the tale of ‘The Romance of the Western Chamber’,
Bluett and Sons, London (label) Cui Yingying, the female protagonist, is trapped in her villa by a gang
Frederick Augustus I (1670-1733) Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, of bandits led by the lascivious Sun the Flying Tiger. Zhang Sheng, the
known as Augustus II the Strong (mark) young scholar and love interest of Yingying, calls upon government
forces and, as on the dish, we see the bold warriors repelling the
The present lot features four intricately drawn scenes from the Chinese rogues. The accompanying inscription reads:
dramatic work 西廂記 xixiangji, or Romance of the Western Chamber.
In order, we have: the young scholar Zhang Sheng taking tea with the 馬离普救敲金鐙
abbot of the local Buddhist monastery; Cui Yingying also visiting the 人望蒲關唱凱歌
monastery with her mother; Zhang and Yingying meeting for the first
time in the grounds; Zhang Sheng leaving on horseback to take the civil Which can be translated as:
service examinations in the city. The last image is typically presented
with Yinying departing in her carriage and therefore suggests this bowl is The horses departed after saving the people, strike the metal stirrups;
one of a pair. The people gaze to Reed Pass, singing songs in triumph.

The inventory mark ground into the base of the present lot identifies it 180
as being from the collection of ‘Augustus II the Strong’ (12 May 1670 AN UNUSUAL BLUE AND WHITE BALUSTER JAR
– 1 February 1733), an avid Chinese porcelain collector who once 17th century
exchanged a unit of elite soldiers for a pair of large blue and white vases. Boldly painted with two elaborate cartouches enclosing birds amongst
His collection was partly removed to the Johanneum in Dresden in 1876 peony and finger citron, reserved on a cracked-ice ground embellished
and received distinctive inventory numbers beginning with the letter ‘N’. with lotus flower head scrolls, with a waisted, glazed neck.
28cm (12in) high
178 •
£1,000 - 1,500
A COLLECTION OF CHINESE ART BOOKS AND AUCTION CNY8,600 - 13,000 HK$10,000 - 15,000
CATALOGUES (OVER 170)
Comprising: Over sixty-five Bonhams Fine Chinese and Asian Art Provenance
catalogues; three Sotheby’s catalogues; eighteen Marchant catalogues Marchant and Son ltd., 14 January 1975.
including Ming Porcelain, 2009; over forty books on Chinese porcelain
including J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, 181
Smithsonian, 1956; Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society, A BLUE AND WHITE OVIFORM JAR AND COVER
vols. 29-35 & 37-78 spanning the years 1954-2014. Chongzhen
(over 170). The exterior finely painted with floral sprays emanating from rockwork,
with birds catching insects in flight amongst clouds, the short neck
£500 - 800 HK$5,000 - 8,000 with downward-pointing lappets, with a domed lid decorated with
CNY4,300 - 6,900 peony and butterflies.
32cm (12 1/2in) high (2).

£1,500 - 2,000
CNY13,000 - 17,000 HK$15,000 - 20,000

Illustrated
A. Spriggs, ‘Oriental Porcelain in Western Paintings’, Transactions of
the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1964, vol. 36, pl. 175b.

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