Page 138 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

156
A BLUE AND WHITE AND ENAMELED CIRCULAR ‘KAISEKI’
SERVING DISH CENTERED BY BODHIDHARMA
Chenghua mark, Tianqi period (1621-1627)
With shallow rounded sides, the interior painted in blue and white and
bright enamels with a figure of Bodhidharma seated on a mat above
a lotus in meditation with a sun-like halo behind his head and set
amidst six cloud groupings, the border with a simple chevron band,
the exterior plain, the base with a four-character Chenghua mark
within a single circle.
6 3/4in (17.1cm) diameter
$2,500 - 4,500

明天啟 五彩羅漢盤

See another circular serving dish also depicting a bare-chested luohan,
probably Bodhidharma, sold at Christie’s, London, The Peony Pavilion
Collection: Chinese Tea Ceramics for Japan (c.1580-1650), 12 June
1989, lot 311, where two others are cited in One Hundred Selected
Red-enamelled Wares, Part 1, no’s, 18 and 43.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

157
A BLUE AND WHITE ‘CORPULENT MOON HARE’ DEEP
ROUNDED BOWL
Chenghua mark, Late Ming, Circa 1643
With deep rounded conical sides painted at the center within a double
circle with a corpulent hare seated in a night landscape below an
osmanthus (guihua) tree with scudding clouds and a full moon, and
further chrysanthemum and bamboo sprays, the cavetto plain and a
wide key-pattern band at the rim, the exterior with three evenly-spaced
butterflies on a plain ground below the rim and between double-line
borders, double encircled Chenghua mark to the base.
7in (17.7cm) diameter

$1,200 - 1,800

明晚期 約1643年 青花玉兔盌

For a group of twelve almost identical rounded conical bowls from the
famed “Hatcher Cargo” recovered from an Asian vessel in the South
China Sea by Captain Michael Hatcher, see Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14
March 1984, lots 203 and 204.

The Moon Hare or Rabbit is associated with the Moon goddess
Chang’e, and is often depicted pounding the elixir of life with a
pestle and mortar or making rice cakes. Here the connection is
less obvious but nevertheless inherent in the depiction of the hare,
moon and osmanthus.

For a description of osmanthus and it’s connection with lunar legends,
see Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San
Francisco, 2006, p.287 no. 10.24. Also known as sweet olive, it is
the flower of the eighth moon, it blooms around the time of the moon
festival. They are often depicted with rabbits or hares as a result of the
moon hare connection. The author depicts an example, one of a set
of twelve Kangxi month cups (the eighth month) with a hare or rabbit
seated beneath a blossoming osmanthus tree.

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