Page 116 - Bonhams Chinese and Himalayan Paintings June 2016

PROPERTY FROM A SONOMA COUNTY COLLECTION
8205
A SET OF FOUR POLYCHROME ENAMELED PLAQUES
Republic period
Each of wide rectangular section and depicting a different bird amid
colorful seasonal foliage below a four character inscription; the
first depicting a green feathered bird about to feast upon a small
insect and clutching a stalk of bamboo blooming from a frond of
chrysanthemums, the inscription reading dongli lengyan [‘the lurid cold
of the eastern hedge’] with seals reading Pan and [?] zhu; the second
depicting a long thin beaked bird gripping the stem of a lotus plant
weighed down by the massive blossom and the intricately rendered
mangled leaf beside it, below an inscription reading liantang faqu [‘the
dharmic path of the lotus pond’], bearing seals reading ding jun and
tao hua; the third depicting a long tailed russet colored bird staring
into the distance and perched upon a gnarled branch of yellow tiny
blossoms, possibly a mustard tree, inscribed yi gai mei shou [‘to
benefit aged brows’] with seal gu huan; the last depicting a bird singing the lotus leaf in that plaque is mangled and seems to barely cling to
amid a sparse group of possibly apple blossoms, the inscription
reading hua xing sheng li [‘art evokes that within the voice’] with seals inscription; and the bird in the apple blossom plaque is painted mouth
reading bai shi.
9 1/4 x 14 1/2in (23.5 x 37cm) visible dimensions of porcelain
$50,000 - 70,000
民國 彩 花 紋 板四片 款 character of the inscription as hinted at by the small yellow buds,
Provenance
Purchased in China before 1949 and thereafter by descent to the
present owner
The seals Gu Huan and Dingjun are found on works by the ceramicist
Pan Taoyu (1887-1926). The seminal Brush and Clay: Chinese
114 | BONHAMS
Porcelain of the Early 20th Century [Ciyi yu Huayi: Ershi Shiji Qianqi
de Zhongguo Ciqi] (Urban Council: Hong Kong 1990) describes Pan
as the crucial link between the Qianjiangcai artists of the late Qing
and the Republic-era Eight Friends of Zhushan. Both innovative and
elegant, his work was compared to that of revered painters Hua Yan
and Yun Shouping. This renown created a crushing workload that
his unfortunately small output was unable to satisfy. These are the
circumstances that his grand-nephew believed led to his tragic early
demise before the age of 40.
Whether by the hand of Pan, one of his later Republic-era admirers, or
by one of the numerous students in his atelier (who included notably
the accomplished bird and flower painters Liu Yucen and Cheng
Yiting among others); the four plaques in this lot do seem to reflect a
mournful understanding of one’s all too short human mortality. The bird
in the chrysanthemum plaque is depicted devouring a helpless insect;
its ephemeral existence in a manner consonant with the Buddhist
agape, mid-song and perhaps mid-epiphany as the inscription would
suggest. But most poignant of all is the bird clutching to a branch
with yellow blossoms, puzzlingly, what appears to be a mustard tree.
Though ostensibly a quote from the Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing), the
way the calligraphy is rendered and a different reading of the second
leads one to read the inscription yi jie kan shou or ‘see longevity like a
mustard seed.’ The inscription suggesting that with wisdom, the entire
length of one’s years can be regarded as something minuscule and
insignificant--as trifling as the mustard seed grabbing the entirety of the
bird’s attention.
Though works by the hand of Pan Taoyu are rare, three bird and flower
examples are published in Innovations and Creations: a Retrospect of
20th Century Porcelain from Jingdezhen (Chinese University of Hong
Kong: 2004) see nos. 25-27. Note the similarity to the treatment of the
chrysanthemums to the present lot. In Brush and Clay (op cit.), p. 148,
there is a cong-form vase which notably is inscribed with a variant of
the same quotation from the Classic of Poetry as alluded to above.
Bonhams New Bond Street offered a pair of fan-shaped plaques
by the hand of Pan Taoyu as cover lot 569 in their sale 18981, The
Anthony Evans Collection of Later Chinese Porcelain, 10 November
2011. These fan plaques were of similar subject matter, with notably
similar calligraphy--see the nearly identically idiosyncratic rendering of
the character hua.