Page 242 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

A CATALOGUE OF

No. 72

Tall Cylindrical Vase (companion to No. 7 1 ), with sloping shoulders and
attenuated neck, flaring slightly toward the upper rim. White hard-

texture porcelain, of fine quality.

The embellishment presents a spirited warrior subject, including a rocky landscape

and detached cliif-like formations, in relief and carefully picked out in brilliant colors of
the " famille verte " variety with gilding, upon a uniformly white glazed ground.

Two distinct groups of armed horsemen, in full charge toward each other, are con-

fronted by the appearance of wild animals, including the burly rishi giant Chung-kwei(?).*

A banner shown by one of the groups bears the mystical symbol "Yang and Yin."

Fragments of rocky landscape with conventional clouds concludes the raised and colored

decoration.

The shoulder is decorated with a brocaded arabesque design in red, involving chrysan-
themums cind four white reserve vignettes or panels showing a separate treatment of

flowers and fruit, and a small green scalloping flmshes the outer edge.

The neck is encircled, at the shoulder, by a green and black fret band, and two small

scalloped borders form a center division that sustains a red and gold dragon amid clouds
and flames in low relief.

The upper rim is bordered by a fret design penciled in red, auid the foot is finished by

an involuted band of spear-heads.
Produced in the eighteenth century (probably toward the end of the reign of K'ang-

hsi).

Height, 29 '4 inches.
Diameter, 8 inches.

A He* favorite myth of the Chinese. was supposed to be a ghostly protector of the Elmperor

Ming Hwang (7 1 3-762 A.D.), and is sometimes shown riding upon a lion or tiger.

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