Pouring Vessel with Crenulated Rim, Lý Dynasty, 1009 – 1225 A.D., Vietnam. Length: 13cm © Zetterquist Galleries

A small spouted cup of thinly potted stoneware with a finely crackled translucent glaze that has fired to an ivory color. The elongated spout and crenulated mouth-rim are hand pinched. The straight foot rim is unglazed and reveals a buff stoneware clay body. This fanciful piece is reminiscent of George Ohr’s ceramics produced a thousand years later.

Double-Gourd Shaped Bottle Vase, Lý Dynasty, 1009 – 1225 A.D., Vietnam. Height: 22cm © Zetterquist Galleries

A stoneware vessel of double gourd form sitting on a shallow foot-rim, the underside of which is unglazed. The top section has a simple mouth with a band of horizontal incising underneath. The bottom section has vertical incising between to bands of horizontal lines, signifying the sections of a gourd. The entire piece is covered with a finely crackled translucent glaze fired to a pale ivory color.

The double-gourd form was popular in both Chinese and Korean ceramics of the same period. The Vietnamese version is most likely influenced by Southern Qingbai wares that were involved in the maritime trade routes originating in Guangzhou and traveling south along the Vietnamese coast line.

Zetterquist Galleries (New York, NY), Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics with Highlights from the Brow Collection, 10-18 march 2017 at 3 East 66th Street, #1B, New York 10065. T (212) 751 0650 - inquiries@zetterquist.com - zetterquist.com

Lidded Ewer, Lý Dynasty, 1009 – 1225 A.D., Thanh Hóa, Vietnam. Height: 13cm © Zetterquist Galleries

A tall bell-shaped ewer with a beast-head spout and parrot handle. The flat top of the high shoulders are decorated with concentric bands of deeply carved lotus petals surrounding the flared neck and mouth-rim. The lid, shaped like a mushroom cap, has a band of carved lotus petals surrounding its lotus-bud finial. The entire piece is covered with a finely crackled translucent glaze that has been stained in burial to a pinkish ivory color.
The flattened foot is unglazed.

This form is easily traced to bronze forms, perhaps even a bell-form, inspired by Khmer bronzes, and is remarkable for having its original lid.

Zetterquist Galleries (New York, NY), Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics with Highlights from the Brow Collection, 10-18 march 2017 at 3 East 66th Street, #1B, New York 10065. T (212) 751 0650 - inquiries@zetterquist.com - zetterquist.com

Brown and White Lidded Jar, Lý–Trần Dynasty, 12th–13th c. A.D., Thanh Hóa, Vietnam. Height: 18cm © Zetterquist Galleries

A lobed, high-shouldered jar with lug handles at the top of each of the eight lobes. The lobes are accentuated by bands of brown around their perimeter to resemble lotus petals. The top of the shoulder is decorated by a band of overlapping lotus petals deeply carved over a striated surface, all below a rolled mouth rim. The lid, also with bands of alternating brown details, has a lotus bud finial (chipped at the top), surrounded by another band of carved overlapping lotus petals sitting in a field of minute circular patterning, accentuated by brown glaze pooling in its crevices. The entire piece, with exception to its brown details, is covered with a finely crackled translucent glaze that pools to a very pale green color, and has orangey-pink burial stains. The interior is glazed in a rich iron-oxide brown glaze. The bottom is unglazed, revealing a light buff clay body.

This piece is notable for the effective use of brown detailing, inside and out, for its masterful carving, and it is one of the finest pieces of this type.

Zetterquist Galleries (New York, NY), Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics with Highlights from the Brow Collection, 10-18 march 2017 at 3 East 66th Street, #1B, New York 10065. T (212) 751 0650 - inquiries@zetterquist.com - zetterquist.com

Lidded Ewer with Iron Oxide Spots, Lý–Trần Dynasty, 12th–13th c. A.D., Vietnam. Height: 19cm © Zetterquist Galleries

A stoneware ewer with ovoid body with pinched spout and strap handle. There are four lug-handles on each side of the shoulder between the spout and handle. The body is decorated with bands of lightly incised lines and large iron oxide brown spots evenly distributed over the surface. The lid, which sits over a straight neck, is similarly decorated, has a flattened top, beveled edges, and is surmounted by a small loop finial. The foot-rim is broad and flat, and has a shallow foot well. The under-foot is unglazed, revealing a stoneware body stained to a dark grey color. The exterior is glazed in a translucent, pale green glaze that was wiped away in areas near the base, with the underlying clay body, as well as the interior of the lid, revealed and firing to a russet color.

This style of decoration descends from the Northern Chinese kilns during the Northern Song Dynasty, and continues to be used in Southern celadon and Qingbai glazed wares, which have likely influenced this piece.

Zetterquist Galleries (New York, NY), Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics with Highlights from the Brow Collection, 10-18 march 2017 at 3 East 66th Street, #1B, New York 10065. T (212) 751 0650 - inquiries@zetterquist.com - zetterquist.com

Lot 2. A rare anhua-decorated tianbai-glazed dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

thinly potted, the gently rounded sides rising to a very slightly lipped rim, decorated around the well in anhua technique with a pair of scaly dragons in pursuit of 'flaming pearls', amidst cloud scrolls, the center with three radiating cloud scrolls, applied overall with a 'sweet white' (tianbai) glaze of warm milky tone, save for the footring left unglazed. Diameter 7 1/2  in., 19 cm

The milky semi-translucent white glaze, combined with the thinly potted body of this dish, reveals the exceptional craftsmanship and quality of materials achieved by potters at Jingdezhen in the early fifteenth century. The cold blue-tinted glazes of the Song dynasty, known as qingbai, developed first into the more subtle, matte and opaque shufu type of the Yuan period, before eventually reaching the superb smooth and pure-white of the Yongle reign. Known as ‘sweet white’ (tianbai), this glaze is described by Nigel Wood in Chinese Glazes. Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, London, 1999, p. 66, as consisting almost entirely of glaze stone with little or no glaze ash, which creates the brilliant smooth surface.: The milky semi-translucent white glaze, combined with the thinly potted body of this dish, reveals the exceptional craftsmanship and quality of materials achieved by potters at Jingdezhen in the early fifteenth century. The cold blue-tinted glazes of the Song dynasty, known as qingbai, developed first into the more subtle, matte and opaque shufu type of the Yuan period, before eventually reaching the superb smooth and pure-white of the Yongle reign. Known as ‘sweet white’ (tianbai), this glaze is described by Nigel Wood in Chinese Glazes. Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, London, 1999, p. 66, as consisting almost entirely of glaze stone with little or no glaze ash, which creates the brilliant smooth surface.

Numerous fragments of monochrome ‘sweet white’ wares have been recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kiln site, both in the early and late Yongle strata, which testifies to their popularity at the Yongle imperial court, where the taste for blue and white developed only slowly. The color white was of the utmost importance in Buddhist ritual ceremonies, which the emperor strongly patronized. It has also been suggested that the preference for white wares may have been politically motivated. The color white is associated with filial piety and mourning, and the Emperor’s choice for white may have been intended to provoke a negative reaction to the usurpation of his nephew’s throne (see the catalogue to the exhibition Defining Yongle. Imperial Art in the Early Fifteenth-Century China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, p. 35). 

A similar dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 69; another is illustrated in Tôyô Tôji Meihin Zuroku/Masterpieces of Chinese and Korean Ceramics in the Ataka Collection. China, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 100; and a third was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Monochrome Ceramics of Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 129. Other related dishes were sold at auction; one from the W.W. Winkworth and the Eumorfopolous collections, was sold twice in our London rooms, 30th May 1940, lot 319, and 19th February 1963, lot 23; another was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 17th May 1988, lot 38; and a third from the collection of Frederick M. Mayer, was sold at Christie’s London, 24th June 1974, lot 78. 

Dishes decorated with dragons and three clouds on the interior are also known in underglaze blue, such as a dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the Museum’s exhibition Imperial Porcelains from the reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, cat. no. 26; and another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1366, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th October 2003, lot 625.

Lot 3. An exceptionally anhua-decorated tianbai-glazed meiping, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Estimate 2,300,000 — 2,800,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

evenly potted of generous proportions with the full rounded shoulders rising at a gently flared angle from the base and sweeping to a short waisted neck, finely incised around the body with a broad frieze of leafy peony scrolls bearing four large, full blossoms, with smaller subsidiary buds, framed below by a band of classic scroll at the foot, and a ruyi-lappet collar filled with lotus sprays at the shoulder, all within double-line borders, covered overall with a fine and smooth 'sweet white' (tianbai) glaze, continuing over the mouth rim, the base left unglazed to reveal the fine white body. Height 12 5/8  in., 32.2 cm 

Provenance: Christie's New York, 17th September 2008, lot 245. 

Immaculate like piled-up snow
Regina Krahl

White porcelain was of special significance for the court during the Yongle reign (1403-24) and this vessel represents one of the classic styles commissioned from the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The present piece is remarkable for its particularly fine potting and its smooth and tactile glaze and illustrates the phenomenal advances made by Jingdezhen’s potters, since porcelains began to be made there officially in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).

Monochrome white wares were so important in the Yongle period that a special glaze of smooth, creamy appearance was developed to create a distinctive monochrome white style as against porcelain that had been left undecorated. What has become known as tianbai, ‘sweet white’, is a glaze that has shed the bluish tinge of the earlier Jingdezhen qingbai (‘bluish-white’) wares, is less opaque than the earlier shufu wares, and has a richer, more luscious presence than contemporary glazes used over underglaze-blue designs, which were primarily meant to be invisible so as not to obscure the blue decoration. The pure white porcelain, which is not unlike porcelains we are using today, resulted from the combination of a kaolin-rich paste with very low iron and titanium content and a glaze containing mainly glaze stone and no glaze ash.

The term tianbai was apparently coined by Huang Yizheng, a writer of the Wanli period (1573-1620) in his Shiwu ganzhu (‘Purple Pearl [memory bead] for Remembering Things’) of 1591, which discusses a range of topics including different types of tea. In this book he characterizes the glaze, which he thought was common both in the Yongle and Xuande (1426-1435) periods, as “white like congealed fat, immaculate like piled-up snow” (Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 35; and Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan, ed., Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan: Mingdai [Porcelain section: Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, p. 13).

Although the majority of Yongle finds at the Ming imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen are apparently ‘sweet white’ wares (in two consecutive Yongle strata at the eastern section of Zhushan Zhonglu in Jingdezhen city over 98%), preserved specimens are much rarer than contemporary blue-and-white porcelains, which can only reflect the immense difficulty to create specimens, where the glaze turned out satisfactorily and which therefore were delivered rather than being destroyed and interred near the kilns (see Hong Kong 1989, op.cit., p. 19).

The importance of white wares is certainly due in part to their relevance in Tibetan Buddhist rituals, which the Yongle Emperor passionately patronized and which is reflected in Buddhist shapes such as ‘monk’s cap’ ewers and stem bowls, as well as probably tens of thousands of porcelain bricks ordered for the Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing, of which over 2000 have been unearthed at the kiln sites. The imperial commissioning of white wares, however, extended well beyond pieces used in a Buddhist context. Besides foreign shapes, particularly copied after metal wares from the Islamic lands of the Middle East, and shapes whose source and usage are still not properly understood, there are wares of purely Chinese character such as the yuhuchunping or the meiping. Meiping vases, or jars, since in the Yongle period they were probably still used as wine containers rather than flower vases, were made in various sizes and despite – or perhaps exactly because of – their quintessentially Chinese flair were not only popular in China, but also abroad. Fine Yongle examples are preserved in the Chinese palace collections in Beijing and Taipei as well as in the Safavid and Ottoman royal collections in Iran and Turkey, but otherwise are very rare.

It seems that the exact outline of the meiping shape was much experimented with at Jingdezhen. It had already been altered from the Yuan (1279-1368) to the Hongwu period (1368-1398); two new versions of Yongle and of Xuande date are known from rejects at the kilns, another appears to be preserved in a single example in the Shanghai Museum. Given the superb silhouette of the piece offered here, it is not surprising that this present version triumphed and was most frequently used in both periods not only for white but also for blue-and-white specimens.

Compare an undecorated example of more heavy, less elegant proportions, with a thick rim flange, the only ‘sweet-white’ Yongle meiping published from the Ming imperial kiln site excavations, in Jingdezhen chutu Ming chu guanyao ciqi/Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 101 (fig. 1); with a larger, plain ‘sweet-white’ meiping of quite different proportions in the Shanghai Museum, also attributed to the Yongle reign, in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-18 (fig. 2); and an undecorated meiping, excavated with cover and stand from the Xuande stratum of the Ming imperial kiln sites, which is closer again to Yuan prototypes, illustrated in Mingdai Xuande yuyao ciqi/Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pl. 63. A smaller lotus-decorated Yongle meiping, similar to the present piece in shape, is compared with a Yuan dynasty piece, both in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, 1980, col. pls 46 and 47.

fig. 1. A tianbai-glazed meiping, Yongle period (1403-1424), Ming imperial kiln site excavations.

fig. 2. A tianbai-glazed meiping, Yongle reign (1403-1424), Shanghai Museum

Meiping such as the present one are known with various subtle, incised designs, most of which are also known from contemporary versions painted in underglaze cobalt blue. The lush peony pattern of the present piece, with small lotus sprays in a cloud collar around the shoulder and a florid classic scroll at the base, is extremely rare. White jars of this shape are better known with a variety of lotus designs, generally of smaller size. Compare a piece in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated catalogue of important Ming porcelains], vol. 1, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 25, together with the blue-and-white counterpart, pl. 11; another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 99; one in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan: Mingdai [Porcelain section: Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 25, with a blue-and-white version, pl. 10.

Four such meiping with lotus design were preserved in the Ardabil Shrine in Iran, see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956 (rev. ed. London, 1981), cat. nos 29.719-722, one of them illustrated pl. 115, together with its blue-and-white counterpart, pl. 51; and one in Topkapi Saray in Turkey, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, vol. 2, cat. no. 636, with a related blue-and-white design, cat. no. 623.

Sotheby's. Ming: The Intervention of Imperial Taste, New York, 14 mars 2017, 10:00 AM

Lot 5. A fine large white-glazed 'lianzi' bowl, Xuande mark and period (1426–1435). Estimate 150,000 — 250,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

well potted, with deep rounded sides rising from a short slightly tapered foot, the exterior faintly incised with two rows of elongated lotus petals below a frieze of crested waves, the interior incised with a central medallion of two leafy pomegranates within double-circles under a register of keyfret at the rim, applied overall with an even white glaze tinged to a subtle light blue tone, the base with the six-character mark within double-circles in underglaze blue. Diameter 8 1/8  in., 20.5 cm

Hedi Xant, Apollo Rey I Concept. Polished brass, marble, 2014© Hedi Xant

Hedi Xant, Apollo Rey II Concept. Polished brass, 2014© Hedi Xant

Hedi Xant, Apollo Rey III for Dries Van Noten: Inspirations (Antwerpt exhibition). 60 x 73 x 60 cm, polished brass, 2015© Hedi Xant

Hedi Xant, The Amperxandt. Logo illustration for THE NEW REPUBLIC magazine, 2014© Hedi Xant

Tibetan Tantric Carpet of a Flayed Man. Made in Nigxia, China, circa 19th Century. Wool, cotton and dye, 56 3/4 x 29 1/2 in (144 x 75 cm) © Tenzing Asian Art

Buddha Shakyamuni, Kashmiri Schools in Western Tibet. Pedestal, 10th-11th century, Buddha, ca. 1050-1100 A.D. Brass Alloy and Pigment. Height: 12.75 in (33 cm) © Tenzing Asian Art

Shadakshari Avalokiteshvara, Western Tibet, 14th century. Brass Alloy with Silver and Copper Inlay. Height: 11 in (28 cm) © Tenzing Asian Art

Standing Amida Nyorai, dated 1512. Height: 49.5 cm © Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art

Noh Mask, Tenkaichi Yūkan, Japan, Edo period, 17th century. Wood. 15.6 x 20.2 cm © Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art

Wooden Head of a Deva, Heian period, 12th century. Height: 43 cm © Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art

Hamada Shoji Teapot, 20th century, 35.2 x 30.4 x 37.6 cm © Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art

Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art (Kyoto, Japan), Selections of Japanese Art, 9-18 march 2017 at at Arader Galleries, 1016 Madison Avenue, New York 10075. T (212) 628 7625 - M (201) 375 1890 - h-yanagi@art.plala.or.jp - h-yanagi.com

Pomander, possibly German, circa 1690. Antique silver© Wartski

Two early pomanders, probably Dutch, circa 1530 and 1670. Silver. Height 7.3 cm (larger example including loop). Height 4.5 cm© Wartski

The larger pomander is engraved with attributes of the goddess Venus including amorini, forget me nots and roses. These alternate between three panels engraved with gods: Mars with his helmet, shield and lance; his mother Juno with her attendant peacock; and Venus with a radiant heart in one hand and her own son Cupid in the other. The smaller pomander engraved with flowers alternating with three panels depicting birds in flight. They both open to reveal six hollow segments secured to a central stem, the lid of each sliding to allow access to a different spice or herb, each being identified by its name in the larger example.

René Lalique (Ay 1860-1945 Paris), Necklace, Paris, circa 1899-1900 © Wartski

Gold, enamel, pearls and glass. Height of pendant 8.8 cm. Signed 'Lalique'

An unusually long necklace suspended with a pendant featuring a portrait of Lalique’s muse Augustine-Alice Ledru (circa 1870-1909), who would become his wife.

The enamelled profile of Augustine-Alice Ledru is framed by gold stems bearing carved glass pine cones and needles which form the border of the jewel and suspend three baroque pearls, while the reverse is engraved to echo the motifs to the front and has a removable brooch fitting. The chain is set with baroque pearls alternating with pierced gold motifs in the form of stylized needles each bearing a blue glass pine cone.
The presence of pine cones is significant, being a symbol of eternity and thus immortalizing the beauty of Lalique’s muse, while the pearls emblematic of Venus testify to his love for her, as does the openwork heart at the base of the pendant from which the centre pearl is suspended.

Giacinto Melillo (1845-1915), Fringe necklace, Naples, circa 1875. Gold and enamel© Wartski

Carl Fabergé (St-Petersburg 1846-1920 Pully), Case, St Petersburg, circa 1890. Carved rock crystal, enamel and diamond© Wartski

Wartski. TEFAF Maastrich 2017. Stand 242 - wartski@wartski.com - www.wartski.com

Yuichi Inoue (1916-1985), En (Cycle/Eternity), 1977. Ink on Japanese paper. H 56-1/2 x W 74-1/2 in (144 x 189 cm) © Erik Thomsen

Inoue Yuichi (1916-1985), Kou (Filial Piety), 1961. Ink on Japanese paper. 71.5 x 39.5 inches (182 x 100 cm) © Erik Thomsen

Inoue Yuichi (1916-1985), Ryu (Dragon), 1960. Ink on Japanese paper. 42.5 x 45.5 inches (108 x 115.5 cm) © Erik Thomsen

Inoue Yuichi (1916-1985), Butsu (Buddha), 1977. Ink on Japanese paper. 56 x 57.5 inches (142 x 146 cm) © Erik Thomsen

Erik Thomsen (New York, NY), Post-War Japanese Calligraphy, 9-18 march 2017 at 23 East 67th Street, 4th floor, New York 10065. T (212) 288 2588 - info@erikthomsen.com - erikthomsen.com

Attributed to Dong Yuan (Chinese, active 930s–960s), Riverbank. Image: 86 3/4 x 43 in. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of Oscar L. Tang Family, in memory of Douglas Dillon, 2016.

NEW YORK, NY.- Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that Oscar L. Tang has donated Riverbank, one of the most important Chinese landscape paintings in existence, to the Museum.

In making the announcement, Mr. Campbell said: "For more than 25 years, Oscar Tang and his family have been extraordinarily generous supporters of The Met's efforts to build a major collection and exhibition program of Chinese art. In addition to earlier gifts of 20 important paintings that range in date from the 11th to the 18th century, Oscar has supported several major projects, including the creation of the Frances Young Tang Gallery, the Wen C. Fong Study-Storeroom, and an endowment for a junior conservator of Chinese painting. Now, with this gift of Riverbank, he has added a uniquely important treasure to The Met's holdings and, in the process, further enhanced the Museum's stature as one of the preeminent collections of Chinese painting in the world."

Mr. Tang, who is a Trustee Emeritus of the Museum and Chairman of the Department of Asian Art's Visiting Committee, said: "For a long time, my intention has been to donate Riverbank to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I am making this gift now as an affirmation of my belief that The Met is an ideal platform on which to showcase the richness of the art and history of my family's heritage, and to care for what in China would be considered a'national treasure.'"

A rare survivor from the formative days of Chinese landscape painting, Riverbank offers a window onto the critically important 10th century, when images of nature rose to prominence, replacing pictures of the human figure as the dominant form of pictorial expression. The handful of paintings that survive from this period, along with textual evidence, indicate that it was a time of epochal transformation, when the painting of landscapes made a quantum leap in scale, sophistication, and ambition. Riverbank is one of the key pieces of evidence of this revolution.

Maxwell K. Hearn—Douglas Dillon Chairman of the Department of Asian Art and author of Along the Riverbank, the 1999 catalogue on Riverbank and 11 other works from Mr. Tang's collection—observed: "Oscar Tang's gift of Riverbank is the capstone of a four-decade-long effort begun in 1973 by the Department of Asian Art's Chairman Emeritus Wen C. Fong to build up The Met's holdings of Chinese painting. This donation, together with earlier gifts and purchases made possible by Mr. Tang, Douglas Dillon, John M. Crawford Jr., and many others, gives The Met the ability to narrate one of the great stories in Chinese art: the rise of a grand tradition of monumental landscape painting in the 10th century and its transformation into a self-expressive art form from the 11th to the 14th century."

Monumental in scale, and the tallest of all existing early Chinese landscape paintings, this imposing mountainscape was painted in ink with light colors on silk now darkened with age. It shows in the foreground a pavilion structure at a river's edge; a scholar wearing a cap and gown, accompanied by his wife and child and a boy servant, sits in a yoke-back chair by the railing, looking out at the gathering storm. Beyond the pavilion, great pines and deciduous trees along the riverbank bend ominously in the wind, and the water rises in choppy, netlike waves. Behind the pavilion, a steep foothill ascends leftward in a series of thrusting boulders, and to the left a waterfall rushes down to the river. A winding pathway connects the foreground with a mist-veiled river valley in the deep distance, where wild geese fly by in formation, and hills beyond the river rise and twist in tortuous formations. Scurrying along the narrow path, six travelers, one of them wearing a thatch cloak and hat, hurry back to the mountain villa. A boy on a water buffalo at water's edge heads toward a courtyard compound, surrounded by a bamboo grove and a brushwood and bamboo fence. Inside the compound, a woman prepares a meal while another woman carries a tray of food along the covered porch. With the family residence visible behind the courtyard, the master and his family assemble in the pavilion on the riverbank—a perfect metaphor for a safe haven in a threatening world.

During the period of disunion that followed the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 and the establishment of the Song dynasty in 960, a number of masters rose to prominence by creating images that captured something of the power and grandeur of nature. These masters tended to eschew the bright, decorative palette of Tang landscapes in favor of monochrome ink, using subtly graded washes to capture the visual effect of atmospheric mists. They also painted at large scale, enveloping the viewer's gaze within a transporting vision of nature's majesty. This tradition, which coalesced in the 10th and 11th centuries, has come to be known as Monumental Landscape.

Riverbank is one of the most important sources we have for this tradition's foundation. Its landscape forms are described through subtly applied washes of diffuse ink that accumulate into alternating bands of light and dark. The softly rubbed-on texturing and absence of distinct contour lines reflects the transformation of an earlier tradition, which is preserved in paintings of the Tang dynasty. By the middle of the Northern Song dynasty in the 11th century, signature line work had become the landscape painter's key tool in describing landscape forms and textures, replacing the softer washes of Tang. Riverbank falls in between these two traditions, placing it squarely in the momentously important 10th century.

Riverbank was the subject of controversy when it was purchased from C. C. Wang in 1997. One prominent scholar, James Cahill (1926–2014) of the University of California, Berkeley, argued that the painting was not a work of the 10th century but a forgery by the 20th-century artist Zhang Daqian (1899–1983). Out of deference to Professor Cahill's stature and firm in the belief that the painting could withstand the scrutiny of the field, The Met's experts convened a symposium to address the painting's authenticity, inviting leading scholars from around the world to weigh in. The proceedings were published as Issues of Authenticity in Chinese Painting. Since that time, Professor Cahill's minority opinion has grown increasingly marginal, and the scholarly consensus that Riverbank is indeed a masterpiece of early Chinese landscape painting has grown stronger. It was exhibited in Taipei at the National Palace Museum in 2006 alongside that museum's 11th-century masterworks by Fan Kuan and Guo Xi, and at the Shanghai Museum in 2012. That these museums, among the most respected custodians and interpreters of Chinese painting in the field, share The Met's belief in Riverbank's authenticity speaks to the solidity of The Met's dating and its acceptance among Chinese painting scholars.

The painting bears a signature of Dong Yuan (active 930s–960s), one of the leading landscape painters active at the court of the Southern Tang kingdom (937–975). Though three other early attributions to Dong Yuan survive, there is no scholarly consensus on which, if any, of these works represents the real Dong Yuan, and there is significant stylistic range even within this small corpus. Given such a limited and murky sample, it is impossible to establish the kind of certainty necessary to support a firm attribution, let alone an idea of a chronology within Dong Yuan's oeuvre. For this reason, the Museum does not claim Riverbank to be a firmly identified work from the hand of the master, preferring instead to present it as one of a constellation of plausible attributions. The painting's importance rests not chiefly in its relationship to Dong Yuan, but in its majesty and completeness as a monument of early landscape painting.

A rare and important pair of Imperial blue and white Bajixiang Moonflasks, Qianlong period (1736-1795). Estimate on Request. Photo: Bonhams.

NEW YORK, NY.- In anticipation of the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale in Hong Kong (May 30), Bonhams New York previews a rare and important pair of Qianlong Imperial blue and white Bajixiang Moonflasks (Estimate on Request). The flasks can be viewed during Bonhams’ Asia Week public preview, March 9-14. 

The Bonhams San Francisco team discovered this exquisite pair in the dining room of the late Belle Skinner Kilborne Taylor, a granddaughter of silk manufacturer and philanthropist, William Skinner (1824-1902). The flasks embody the highpoint of Qianlong Imperial power, crafted for Yongle, the third Ming emperor, who ruled from 1402 to 1424. Based upon Yuan and Ming dynasty vessels of a similar shape but flat backed, the round shape of the moonflasks resembles the shape of a Middle Eastern water vessel (Arabic wudu). The moonflasks are decorated on each face in underglaze blue with the Eight Precious Emblems 'bajixiang' consisting of a pair of fish, a conch, a wheel, an endless knot, a victory banner, a parasol, a lotus flower and a vase each symbolizing specific virtues. 

The moonflasks were purchased by Belle Skinner Kilborne Taylor’s aunt Ruth Isabelle (‘Belle’), for whom she was named, during her travels through Asia in 1889 and 1909. They were displayed in the newly built Great Hall of the family home completed by Belle before her sudden death in 1928. A noted businesswoman and humanitarian, Belle Skinner received the Legion d’Honneur from the French government for her role in rebuilding of the town of Hattonchatel and the Chateau de Hattonchatel following World War I. Belle’s sister Katherine Skinner Kilborne, the youngest of the Skinner children, inherited the moonflasks, which were passed down to her daughter Belle. 

Dessa Goddard, US Head of Asian Art says, “This pair of moon flasks is an exceptional and fascinating example of cultural interaction, fusing Middle Eastern and Chinese sculptural traditions in the 14th century and representing the ultimate in Chinese porcelain achievement in the Qianlong period. We are expecting intense interest from across the world, as this would be an extraordinary addition to any collection of fine Chinese art."

Totoya Hokkei, Rooster threatening a painted cockerel, 1825, Japan, CBL J 2116© 2017 Chester Beatty Library

DUBLIN.- The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin is presenting a special exhibition focusing on one of the treasures of the Library’s Japanese collection: the colour woodblock prints known as surimono. Combining short verses by poets with elegantly executed illustrations by the most famous names of the floating world, these privately commissioned prints open a window onto the flourishing literary culture of Japan’s Edo period (c. 1603–1868). The exhibition features more than eighty prints selected from the Library’s extensive surimono collection, by artists including Katsushika Hokusai, Totoya Hokkei and Yashima Gakutei. 

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the city of Edo (modern Tokyo) was gripped by a fever for ‘wild verse’. The amateur poets who penned these short, witty poems commissioned woodblock prints that paired their verse with elegant designs. These privately commissioned prints are known as surimono. Made to be exchanged among friends and to mark auspicious occasions such as the New Year, these prints were crafted with the utmost care. Capturing courtesans and heroes, scenes of daily life and stories from the scholar’s desk, surimono embody the eloquence and amity of Japan’s cultivated salons: a glittering glimpse into a world rich in witty allusion. 

The quality and refinement of surimono appealed greatly to Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. Between 1954 and 1963, he amassed a collection of these prints that is considered one of the finest in the world. This year is the 60th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between Japan and Ireland. As artistic and poetic sentiments shared to mark the passing of time and friendship’s renewal, surimono offer the perfect medium to celebrate this important occasion. 

Chester Beatty Library Director, Fionnuala Croke said “The strong cultural links between the Chester Beatty Library and Japan started in Beatty’s own lifetime and have ever since continued to grow in strength. I am delighted that this exquisite exhibition, The Art of Friendship, will mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan.” 

The exhibition is curated by Dr Mary Redfern, Curator of the Library’s East Asian Collection.

Lot 2133. A green-glazed pottery model of a well, Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Estimate US$ 2,500 - 4,000 (€2,400 - 3,800). Photo: Bonhams.

Modeled in cylindrical form, the wide rim set with a water jar on one side adjacent to one end of the tall arch, surmounted by the roofed pulley housing, flanked by a pair of downward facing dragon heads, all beneath an iridescent green glaze, Japanese wood box. 15in (38cm) high

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Tokyo, prior to December 1950

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS, 13 Mar 2017, 12:00 EDT, NEW YORK

Lot 2135. A painted pottery figure of an official, Northern Wei dynasty. Estimate US$ 3,000 - 5,000 (€2,900 - 4,800). Photo: Bonhams.

Portrayed standing with left hand held in a fist at chest level supported by the right, wearing long layered robes and official hat, wood stand, Japanese wood box. 11 1/4in (28.6cm) high

Provenance: Mayuyama and Co., 24 September 1949

Note: A slightly smaller Northern Wei figure, also acquired from Mayuyama & Co., was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 19-20 March 2013, lot 17.

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS, 13 Mar 2017, 12:00 EDT, NEW YORK

Lot 2136. A sancai glazed pottery horse and rider, Tang Dynasty (618–907). Estimate US$ 15,000 - 20,000 (€14,000 - 19,000). Photo: Bonhams.

The chestnut glazed horse standing four-square on an unglazed rectangular base, the head reaching forward with an open mouth, the groom in a green glazed tunic, the arms raised and folded at the elbows. 14in (35.5cm) high

Provenance: Brunk Auctions, 14-16 November 2014, Lot 1066 
Ex collection Carnegie Museum of Art

Note: The dating for this lot is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test performed by CIRAM Corp., TL testing service, New York, NY, on 9 February, 2017, test reference number 0217-OA-12N.

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS, 13 Mar 2017, 12:00 EDT, NEW YORK