Page 165 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art 09/13/17
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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE The term Zhai jie refers to the ceremonial
COLLECTION requirement for abstinence before one worshiped
the ancestors, the Heavens or other deities. The
A RARE DOUBLE-GOURD ENAMEL ritual cleansing of the body from within, which
‘ABSTINENCE’ PLAQUE usually lasted for three days, involved abstention
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG from meat, intoxicants, intimate relations and
PERIOD the ve strong-smelling vegetables. ‘Abstinence’
plaques were made in various materials, including
delicately painted in bright enamels, inscribed jade, bamboo, painted enamel and porcelain.
one one side with the characters Zhai jie in blue
enamel, the reverse with the two characters in Compare two similarly-decorated double-gourd
Manchu, both sides with two pink-enameled bats form enamel ‘abstinence’ plaques, the rst sold
in ight and framed by gourds and small white in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2008,
blossoms amidst entwined tendrils, all reserved lot 2611; the second, from the collection of Luís
on a pale green ground, within a gilt-bronze Esteves Fernandes, sold at Woolley & Wallis,
border, with an attached orange silk tassel Salisbury, 22nd May 2013, lot 26.
Length 2½ in., 6.5 cm
$ 15,000-20,000
PROVENANCE
1949 1970
Rende Zhai Collection, acquired between 1949
and the 1970s. 2011 9 15 1213
Christie’s New York, 15th September 2011, lot
1213.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 163
