Page 60 - Bonhams Chinese and Himalayan Paintings June 2016
P. 60
8099 Bartholomew’s more recent scholarship however has further elucidated
AN YIXING POTTERY GU-FORM VASE the role of high quality homages to the work of Chen Mingyuan made
CHEN MINGYUAN MARK in Shanghai during the 20th century. See the catalog to the exhibition
The mottled tan sandy clay crisply potted in five-cornered foliate of Yixing works in the Bei Shan Tang Collection recently held at the
section in a tall trumpet-form mouth above a central collar encircling City University of Hong Kong, Lai Suk Yee and Bartholomew, The Bei
the thin waist surmounting the short flared foot all raised upon a Shan Legacy: Yixing Zisha Stoneware [Beishan Jigu: Yixing Zisha]
circular foot ring surrounding the impressed three-character zhuanshu (Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015).
mark, with fitted wood stand and wood storage box.
7 1/4in (18.4cm) high Notable are the works of Pei Shimin (1892-1977)-- per Bartholomew,
due to his renown in creating these ‘Shanghai Masterpieces,’ Pei
$6,000 - 8,000 became widely known as ‘Chen Mingyuan the second.’ A gu-form
vase extremely similar to the present lot forms the central focus of a
興「 」印款 photo of a large group of masterworks made by Pei included in the
catalog (ibid p.60).
The ceramicist Chen Mingyuan is generally accepted to have been
active in the early Qing period. Per Terese Tse Bartholomew in The Art Bonhams Hong Kong has offered a number of these archaistic
of the ixing otter the K.S. Lo Collection Flagstaff ouse Museum form containers with Chen Mingyuan marks, see examples from the
of Tea Ware (Hong Kong: the Urban Council, 1990), Chen ‘was well collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Sha: numbers 547, 550, 551, and
known for his technical virtuosity and creativity’ with works in various 556 in Bonhams Hong Kong sale 20489 of 27 May 2012.
styles in addition to ‘containers in the form of archaistic bronze vessels’
like the present lot (p 45).
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