Lot 1194. A famille verte'Rice production' dish, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 13 7/8 in. (35.2 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The dish is decorated with farmers sifting rice in a courtyard and a lady and a child inside a house in the background, accompanied by a poem describing the scene. 

Note: The scene depicted on the present dish is number nineteen from the Gengzhi tu (Pictures of Ploughing and Weaving).This series was first made during the Song Dynasty as a set of forty-five scenes, as part of the didactics of teaching princes and officials the necessity of sericulture and farming. In the twenty-eigth year of the Kangxi reign (1689), the emperor ordered the court painter Jiao Bingzhen to produce an album based on this series. In the thirty-fifth year (1696), sets of wood block prints were produced based on Jiao Bingzhen's album, comprising twenty-three illustrations of farming and the same number of weaving.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1195. A famille verte 'Rice production' dish, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 13 ¾ in. (35 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 95,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The dish is decorated with a scene of a farmer fertilizing the rice in the foreground and another farmer carrying buckets of fertilizer in the background, accompanied by a poem describing the scene. 

Note: The scene depicted on the present dish is number eight from the Gengzhi tu (Pictures of Ploughing and Weaving). For a discussion of this series, see the previous lot (1194).

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York 

Lot 1196. A large famille verte bowl, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 13 1/8 in. (33.3 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 7,000 - USD 9,000. Price realised USD 6,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The bowl is molded on the lower body with a band of petals which are decorated on the exterior with mythical beasts alternating with a variety of flowering plants and birds, all below a shaped, diagonally arranged panels enclosing various flowers growing amidst garden rocks, as well as butterflies and birds in flight. The center of the interior is similarly decorated within a barbed ten-petaled medallion below decorative bands at the rim. A seal mark within a double circle in underglaze-blue is on the base.

Provenance: John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) Collection, New York. 
Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908-1979) Collection, New York. 
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York..

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York 

Lot 1197. A famille noire beaker vase, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 17 in. (43.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 12,000 - USD 18,000. Price realised USD i6,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The vase is decorated in polychrome enamels with birds amidst hydrangea branches on a black ground divided into three registers by narrow bands further decorated with hydrangea. Raised on a wood stand attached by painted clips, wood stand.

Provenance: John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) Collection, New York. 
Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908-1979) Collection, New York.
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York

Note: It was not until 1913 that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a noted collector of European paintings and textiles, discovered Chinese ceramics, when he was looking for two vases to adorn the mantelpiece of his New York home at 10 West 45th Street. By 1915, when J.P. Morgan died and his porcelain collection was sold by the art dealer Joseph Duveen, Rockefeller’s interest in the field was fully sparked. Duveen offered the Morgan ceramics to Rockefeller, Henry Clay Frick, and Joseph E. Widener. The scale of John D., Jr.’s desired purchase of the Morgan porcelains, however, was great enough to necessitate a loan of some $2 million from his father, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. “I have never squandered money on horses, yachts, automobiles or other foolish extravagances,” the collector wrote in a letter outlining his request. “A fondness for these porcelains is my only hobby – the only thing on which I have cared to spend money. I have found their study a great recreation and diversion, and I have become very fond of them…. The money put into these porcelains is not lost or squandered… I think you do not realize how much I should like to do it, for you do not know the beauty and charm of these works of art…” (R. Fosdick, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., A Portrait, New York, 1956, p. 335) John D., Sr. duly gifted the required funds, and a collection of exceptional beauty and provenance was born. In the decades to come, John D., Jr., would further advance his assemblage of Chinese ceramics through personal scholarship and a commitment to acquiring the very best.  

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York 

Lot 1199. A pair of blue and white bowls, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. Price realised USD 7,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

Each bowl is decorated on the exterior with two blossoming prunus trees against a washed background, all between bands of 'cracked ice and prunus' pattern, which is repeated in a medallion in the center and at the rim of the interior. An apocryphal Chenghua mark is inscribed on each base. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1201. A blue and white mallet vase, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 7 ½ in. (19.1 cm.) high. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 40,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The vase has a domed body and a tall cylindrical neck rising to a lipped rim, and is decorated with two stylized phoenixes grasping a ring in their beaks. The base is inscribed with an artemisia leaf. 

Note: A related Kangxi-period mallet-form blue and white vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. I, part II, Beijing 2005, pp. 102-3, no. 40. See, also, the similar vase, but incorporating copper-red in the phoenix decoration and bearing a yu(jade) mark on the base, from the Gordon Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1150.

A copper-red-decorated blue and white mallet vase,shuangluzun,Kangxi period (1662-1722), 7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high. Price realised USD 16,250 at Christie’s New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1150. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

With domed body and tall cylindrical neck rising to a lipped rim, painted with two stylized phoenixes grasping a ring in their beaks, the base painted with a yu (jade) mark within a double circle.

Note: Kangxi-period vases of this unusual shape with similar decoration are more usually decorated in underglaze blue and sometimes in copper red only, while a few examples, such as the present vase, use the combination of the two. A related vase, in underglaze blue only, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. I, part II, Beijing 2005, pp. 102-3, no. 40. One with Kangxi mark is illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, p. 126, no. 754. Another with Kangxi mark was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 31 May 2010, lot 1993. Those decorated only in copper red include one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng (ed.), Kangxi Porcelain Ware from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 71, p. 108; and another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, pl. 141. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1205. A blue and white jardinière, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 12 ½ in. (31.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 4,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The heavily potted jardinière is decorated on the sides with a continuous river landscape in which figures are shown engaging in various pursuits including resting in pavilions nestled amidst forested mountains and against a waterfall. 

Provenance: J. T. Bradbury Collection, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1206. A blue and white baluster jar, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 9 ¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. Price realised USD 2,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The high-shouldered, tapering body is decorated in shades of blue with two leafy flowering trees amidst rock formations, birds, and insects. 

Provenance: Collection of Ambassador Ti-Tsun Li (1901-1981), and thence by descent to the present owner.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Lot 1207. A blue and white 'Phoenix tail' vase, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 13 7/8 in. (35.3 cm.) high. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 8,125. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The baluster body and tall trumpet-shaped neck are decorated with continuous riverside landscape scenes each incorporating a solitary figure. 

Provenance: Collection of Ambassador Ti-Tsun Li (1901-1981), and thence by descent to the present owner.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Vietnamese Dreamscapes by David Schermann, Vienna, Austria

Lot 1029. Nguyễn Gia Trí (Chương Mỹ, Hà Tây 1909 - 1993), Paysage (Landscape), signed and dated 40, lacquer on wood, in 6 parts; each: 97.5 by 33 cm; 38 1/4  by 13 in. (6); overall: 97.5 by 198 cm; 38 1/4  by 78 in. Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. © Sotheby’s

Provenance: Private Collection, France.

Note: Revered as a master of modern Vietnamese painting, Nguyễn Gia Trí is best known for his lacquer works. Born in 1908 in Hà Tây province (North Vietnam) to a family of imperial craftsmen, Gia Tri was trained in L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de L’Indochina in Hanoi. From the inception of his career, Gia Tri’s devotion to the art of lacquer was unparalleled—committing his time entirely to perfecting the technique, he succeeded in revolutionizing this traditional Asian material from a decorative handicraft into a medium of artistic expression. 

Gia Tri’s creations are best known for their hybrid quality. Combining foreign engraving and inlaying methods, modernist abstract composition, principles of European painting with traditional lacquer techniques, Gia Trí produced numerous paintings that adorned the salon of the French Governor of Indochina in Hanoi. The present lot, entitled Paysage (Landscape), is characteristic of Gia Trí’s creations during his artistic golden period. A formidable six-panel lacquer painting, Paysage (Landscape) captures the idyllic setting of rural Vietnam and the diversity of its landscape. Of particular note is Gia Trí’s ingenious use of colour to establish pictorial depth and illusion. The spellbinding use of gold, silver and warm ochres in the foreground is contrasted against the bold shades of maroon that color the background of the work, giving rise to the illusion of space. The work is also exemplary of Gia Trí’s keen eye for detail and attachment toward the bucolic countryside of his youth: the palm trees, bamboos and shrubs are painstakingly rendered in loving detail. 

Paysage (Landscape) is a testament to Gia Trí’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of the medium. Faced with a limited range of colors, Gia Trí drew from a range of raw materials—from crushed and inlaid eggshells to gold, silver and mother-of-pearl—to achieve a wider palate. The shimmering roofs of the pagodas and houses in the present work, for example, are a brainchild of Gia Trí’s innovative and skillful placement of charred eggshells. Visually reminiscent of the imperial architecture of North Vietnam’s Lê Dynasty in their elevated hip rafters, the buildings that form the focal point of the work bespeak the artist’s tender nostalgia and familiarity with traditional Vietnamese art forms. 

As a whole, there exists an undeniably charming richness to the painting, which reimagines a quintessentially indigenous landscape through the frame of Western linear perspective. A realization of the medium’s greatest artistic potentials, Paysage (Landscape) stands as an example of Gia Trí’s masterful experimentations with Western and Vietnamese techniques.

Lot 1030. Maison des Beaux Arts de L’Indochine, An important Coromandel lacquer screen, engraved with a seal of the school, lacquer on wood panel, in 10 parts; each: 160.5 by 27.5 cm; 63 1/4  by 10 3/4  in (10); overall: 160.5 by 279 cm; 63 1/4  by 109 3/4  in.  Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. © Sotheby’s

Provenance: Private Collection, France.

Note: With the founding contributions of the French painters Joseph Inguimberty, Victor Tardieu and Evarist Jonchère, alongside French-trained Vietnamese artists such as Nguyen Vạn Thọ and Nguyen Gia Tri, the Maison des Beaux-Arts de L’Indochine (MBAI) was instrumental in elevating lacquer painting to a novel artistic language unique to Vietnam. The school trained generations of artists acclaimed for their high level of technical ability. As a result of the École’s emphasis on creating a new cultural identity grafted from French modernist techniques, many students synthesized European aesthetic styles and indigenous craft sources to inaugurate a hybrid artistic vocabulary that continues to influence the nation’s art scene to this day. Many lacquer works fashioned by École student-painters are highly prized for this mesmerizing blend.

The present lot stands out as a particularly illustrious demonstration of the Vietnamese lacquer technique. Evincing a sense of grandeur and imperial nostalgia, the front side of the screen depicts a scene of the procession of the last emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, who is surrounded by bevy of soldiers, civil mandarins and servants, as they leave the Imperial Palace in Hue. The people standing in the sprawling palatial grounds dutifully face towards the emperor--the focal point of the work. 

Drawing on the Western technique of fixed-point perspective, the artists capture the architectural splendour of the Imperial Citadel in extraordinary detail while remaining faithful to the layout of the palace. From an elevated perspective the screen shows the ornate timber roof and lacquered columns of Ngo Mon Gate (Moon Gate), the picturesque lotus-filled waters of Thai Dich Lake and the vast expanse before Thai Hoa Palace, where the Đại Nam emperors met with dignitaries and ministers.

The ceremonial spectacle portrayed pulsates with liveliness. The crowds and sheer volume of royal insignia, such as the massive Imperial flags fluttering in the wind, the gilded parasol and plaques shielding the emperor, as well as the richly ornamented court elephants, all lend the work a sense of opulence.

A rare and commanding ten-panel screen, this work is a testament to the MBIA school’s finesse in lacquer etching or engraving. Other comparable coromandel lacquer screens from the same period, included a screen created by the artist Nguyen Ben Bai currently in the collection of the Hanoi Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a piece that was offered to the Emperor Bao Dai and Empress Nam Phuong in 1937 that is in the Museum of the Imperial City of Hue.

Exemplary of the coromandel lacquer technique, the production of this work is characterized by a labour-intensive process demanding both dexterity and patience. The wooden screens are first coated in dark lacquer and meticulously incised with sharp tools, before being painted in with a dazzling array of colours and embellished with gold, mother-of-pearl and precious stones, ultimately resulting in a detailed image that is crisp and linear. Bathed in a remarkable variety of colours—from the traditional enameled roofs in vermilions and maroons to the shrubbery and palms lined with olive green and golden hues—this work is the fruit of the artists’ experimentations with a wide range of materials, including powdered eggshells, mother-of-pearl, charcoal powder and plant-based dyes, to produce a distinctive colour palette.

The reverse side of the screen features an ensemble of fourteen Vietnamese poems dating from the 19th century (mostly dating from the reign of the Emperor Tự Đức (1847-1883). All of the poems are  rendered in Chữ Nôm characters (Classical Chinese characters) etched in two distinctive calligraphic styles—the flowing semi-cursive script (hành thư) and the more formalist seal script (triện thư). They are elegiac verses describing the majesty of the emperor and the charming landscapes of Annam.

This is the first time that poems of Imperial origins were displayed in Vietnamese lacquer screen art. The poems not only give the overall work an added lyricism and historical provenance, it shows the endeavors of the École to achieve a harmonious balance within Asian artistic practice that balance between image and text.

This enormous screen is also lined by a border of classical coromandel patterns, traditional Vietnamese floral motifs, scholars carrying their symbolic fruit as well as other ritualistic objects.  Numerous “still life” designs illustrating fruits, peonies, vases, small animals and vines, are carved onto dark lacquer. These variegated motifs add a nice contrast to the detailed rendering of the imperial court scene and ultimately imbue the overall work with a sense of balance as well as symbolic meaning. 

Maison des Beaux Arts de L’Indochine, The Departure Ceremony of the Emperor of Annam and the Procession of his Followers at the Impérial Palace at Hue (An Important Coromandel Lacquer Screen). Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2015, Lot 306, for 1,500,000 HKD (193,543 USD)© Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s. Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Hong Kong, 30 Sep 2017, 05:00 PM

Lot 1844. Important 6.01 carats Burmese Ruby and 4.25 carats Type IIa Diamond Ring. Estimation on request. © Sotheby’s

Of toi et moi design, set with a cushion-shaped ruby and diamond weighing 6.01 and 4.25 carats respectively, to the circular-cut diamond gallery and shoulders, mounted in 18 karat white gold. Ring size: 5½ 

Accompanied by AGL report numbered CS 69608, dated 11 August 2015, stating that the 6.01 carat ruby is natural, of Burmese (Myanmar) origin, with no gemmological evidence of heat; also accompanied by GIA report numbered 2185055504, dated 6 December 2016, stating that the 4.25 carat diamond is D Colour, Internally Flawless; further accompanied by a diamond type classification report stating that the diamond is determined to be a Type IIa diamond. Type IIa diamonds are the most chemically pure type of diamonds and often have exceptional optical transparency.

Lot 1857. Very Rare and Impressive 13.26 carats Burmese 'pigeon blood red' Ruby and Diamond Ring, Designed and Mounted by BHAGAT. Estimation 68,000,000 — 88,000,000 HKD. © Sotheby’s

Note: Accompanied by Gübelin and SSEF reports numbered 17051095 and 92156, dated 17 May 2017 and 22 May 2017 respectively, stating that the 13.26 carat ruby is natural, of Burmese (Myanmar) origin, with no indications of heating, both Gübelin and SSEF stating that the colour of this ruby may also be called 'pigeon blood red'; the Gübelin report is additionally accompanied by a Gemmological Profile, together with history and chemical analysis of the stone.

Joseph Highmore, Pamela in the Bedroom with Mrs Jewkes and Mr B, 1743-44© Tate, London 2015.

Curated by Dr Jacqueline Riding, Basic Instincts at the Foundling Museum in London (Sept. 29, 2017 to January 7, 2018) explores Georgian attitudes to love, desire and female respectability through the radical paintings of Joseph Highmore.

A highly successful artist and Governor of London’s Foundling Hospital, Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) is best known as a portrait painter of the Georgian middle class. However, during the 1740s his art radically shifted, reflecting his engagement with the work of the new Foundling Hospital and its mission to support desperate and abused women. Highmore’s involvement with the Hospital sparked engagement with issues around women’s vulnerability to sexual assault and society’s unwillingness to support them, culminating in a work of exceptional power, The Angel of Mercy.

Joseph Highmore, The Vigor Family, 1744© Victoria and Albert Museum.

Basic Instincts is the first major Highmore exhibition for 50 years and explores this decade of disruptive social commentary in his art. Amongst the works on display are four paintings from a series of twelve, inspired by Samuel Richardson’s international bestseller, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, explicitly making reference to the abuse and sexual violence at the core of the novel. On public display in the UK for the first time as part of Basic Instincts is a remarkable painting that still retains the power to shock. The Angel of Mercy (c.1746) depicts a desperate mother in the act of killing her baby, with the distant Foundling Hospital presented as the alternative. Set among Highmore’s tender portraits of mothers and children, family and friends, this show uniquely demonstrates the artist’s depth and variety.

The Foundling Museum tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, the UK's first children's charity and first public art gallery.

Joseph Highmore, The Angel of Mercy, c. 1746. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

The moving story of the Foundling Hospital (which continues today as the children's charity Coram) and the abandoned children who grew up there is revealed through the artworks, objects and archival documents on display in the Museum. The Foundling Hospital Collection, owned by Coram, is complemented by the Museum’s Collection, which includes the Gerald Coke Handel Collection.

Artists who donated work to the Foundling Hospital include William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and John Michael Rysbrack. Paintings, sculpture, furniture and ceramics are displayed in beautiful eighteenth-century interiors, reconstructed from the original Hospital building.

Joseph Highmore, Hagar and Ishmael, 1746© Coram in the care of the Foundling Museum.

Lot 2. A white jade 'Cloud scroll' disc, yuan, Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC), 2 5/8 in. (7 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 120,000 - HKD 180,000 (USD 15,436 - USD 23,154). © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1998.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2 October 2017, Alexandra House, Hong Kong

Lot 3. A white and russet jade 'Comma scroll' scabbard slide, Warring States period (475-221 BC), 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 150,000 (USD 12,864 - USD 19,295) © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1998.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2 October 2017, Alexandra House, Hong Kong

Lot 4. A white and russet jade 'Cloud scroll' scabbard slide, Warring States period (475-221 BC), 3 1/2 in. (9 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 150,000 (USD 12,864 - USD 19,295) © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1997.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2 October 2017, Alexandra House, Hong Kong 

Lot 5. A white jade 'Cloud scroll' scabbard slide, Warring States period (475-221 BC), 4 1/2 in. (11.6 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 80,000 - HKD 120,000 (USD 10,291 - USD 15,436) © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1997.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2 October 2017, Alexandra House, Hong Kong 

Lot 6. A white and russet jade patterned scabbard slide, Warring States period (475-221 BC), 3 in. (7.5 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 80,000 - HKD 120,000 (USD 10,291 - USD 15,436) © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1997.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2 October 2017, Alexandra House, Hong Kong