Page 36 - March 17, 2020 Impotant Chinese Art, Sotheby's, New York

138
PROPERTY FROM A NORTH AMERICAN PRIVATE A similar example in the collection of the 清康熙 郎窰紅釉觀音尊
COLLECTION National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated
A COPPER-RED-GLAZED ‘LANGYAO’ in Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Ch’ing 來源
VASE Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Elsie Caroline Borden Hohlweg (1910年生)
Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, pl. 1; and another
QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in 收藏，此後家族傳承
the slender baluster body rising from a The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
spreading foot to a waisted neck and everted Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong
mouth, covered in a deep copper-red glaze Kong, vol. 37, 1999, pl. 15. Both are described
draining to white at the rim, suffused with a as Guanyin zun and attributed to the Kangxi
network of fine craquelure throughout, the period. Another related example previously
interior and underside of the base covered with in the E.T. Hall Collection, sold at Christie’s
a crackled celadon-tinged clear glaze London, 7th June 2004, lot 150.
Height 14¼ in., 36 cm
$ 5,000-7,000
PROVENANCE
Collection of Elsie Caroline Borden Hohlweg (b.
1910), and thence by descent.

139
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NORTH form and with a six-character mark, but lacking 清康熙 五彩鯉躍龍門圖洗
AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION the double circle, from the Shanghai Museum 《大清康熙年製》款
A RARE FAMILLE-VERTE ‘CARP’ Collection is published in Kangxi Porcelain
WASHER Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, 來源
KANGXI MARK AND PERIOD Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 15. 私人收藏，購於1980年代之前，此後家
The design on the present washer is extremely
of circular form with shallow tapered sides rare. The carp is rendered in an exceptionally 族傳承
resting on a bi-disc shaped foot, the interior naturalistic manner amid vivid turbulent waves.
vividly painted carp amid turbulent waves and This imagery of the leaping carp refers to the
columnar rocks, all enclosed within circular proverb of the carp leaping over the Dragon
bands, the base with a six-character mark in Gate and turning into a dragon, an allusion to
underglaze blue within a double circle the student passing the imperial examinations
Diameter 5⅞ in., 14.9 cm to become a government official. A closely
related example of the same form and a similar
PROVENANCE design sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th
Private Collection, acquired before the 1980s, November 2005, lot 1374; and a famille-verte
and thence by descent. example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th
May 2006, lot 1426.
Boldly potted with a clean and simple tapered
form, this rare famille-verte washer represents Two more Kangxi mark and period washers of
the unique imperial taste and high quality of similar size, but in lobed form, include one in
porcelain production of the Kangxi reign (1662- the Shanghai Museum, published in op. cit., pl.
1722). Indeed, washers of this form are believed 217; and one sold at Christie’s London, 16th
to date to the early part of that reign period. November 1999, lot 217.
A related blue and white washer of the same
⊖ $ 60,000-80,000

68 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10644 69