Lot 155. A peachbloom-glazed seal paste box and cover (Yinse He), Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). Diameter 2 3/4  in., 7.2 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot sold 293,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of entirely plain compressed circular form, the domed cover of crushed raspberry red shading to a light mushroom color terminating in a bright mottled green around the sides and on the upper part of the box with a further hint of characteristic ‘unripe peach’ green, transmuting to a deep lively red towards the base, the footrim with a neatly finished groove around the outer edge, inscribed on the underside with a six-character mark in underglaze blue (2).

Provenance: Acquired in San Francisco, California in the early 20th century and thence by descent.

Note: The famous peachbloom glaze was notoriously difficult to achieve. To manage the fugitive copper-lime pigment, it is believed to have been sprayed, via a long bamboo tube with fine silk covering one end, onto a layer of transparent glaze and then fixed with another layer, so as to be sandwiched between two layers of clear glaze. The distinctive glaze has several beguiling Chinese names among them “drunken beauty” and “baby face”.  ‘Peach bloom’ was most likely coined by the Western scholar Stephen W. Bushell in the 19th century.  The glaze was used exclusively on forms for the scholar’s table; water pots, small vases, and brushwashers. Ralph M Chait, in « The Eight Prescribed Peachbloom Shapes Bearing Kang-hsi Marks, » Oriental Art 3 (Winter 1957), 130-13 seems to have ascribed the glaze to only eight forms. John Ayers in « The Peachbloom Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722) », Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 64, 1999-2000 adds a ninth form to the group, however variations of the forms would imply that these scholars’ wares may never have been conceived as a set.  The technique marks one of the great ceramic innovations of the Kangxi period, but probably due to the demanding process it remained in use for only a short time and was not revisited until around 1900 when reproductions of the celebrated glaze were made.

Similar seal paste boxes can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 138; in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 141; and in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the museum’s Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch’ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 11. Compare also one sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 17th December 1996, lot 115, and later sold again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th April 2003, lot 569. Another example also from our Hong Kong rooms was sold 5th October 2011, lot 1996.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 16 sept. 2014

Lot 154. A peachbloom-glazed brush washer (Tangluoxi), Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). Diameter 4 7/8  in., 12.3 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 40,000 USD. Lot sold 87,500 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

well potted with low rounded sides incurved at the mouth and supported on a low straight foot, the exterior covered with a characteristically mottled copper-red glaze around the rim transmuting to a strikingly bright speckled green emulating an unripe peach and back to a dusky red around the base, the interior and recessed base left white, the base inscribed with a six-character mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Acquired in San Francisco, California in the early 20th century and thence by descent.

Note: Examples of this celebrated type of peachbloom brush washer are represented in many of the world’s finest museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Palace Museum, Beijing and the Sir Percival David Collection at the British Museum, London. The washer in the Metropolitan Museum is illustrated with a group of peachbloom-glazed vessels made for the scholar’s table, including a beehive water pot by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, rev. ed., p. 237, no. 236.

Compare with examples of Kangxi-marked brush washers of this type from the collection of Edward T. Chow, sold most recently in our Hong Kong rooms, 8 April 2009, lot 1657; another from the H.M. Knight collection, included in the exhibition 4000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 300, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19 May 1982, lot 263; and another vessel published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 820. Other examples sold in our Hong Kong rooms on 5th October 2011, lot 1997 and from the J.M. Hu collection on 9th October 2012, lot 105. 

The profusion of the striking green flecks is rare among examples of peachbloom.  Referred to as pingguo jing  ‘apple green’, the spotted green mottling is possible through a technique using varied concentrations of copper that, when exposed during firing, oxidize to form green spots and modulation.

Lot 676. Three copper-red glazed dishes, Qianlong seal marks and of the period (1736-1795). Diameters 8 1/8  in., 20.6 cm. Estimate 5,000 — 7,000 USD. Lot sold 27,500 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

all with rounded sides rising from a short straight foot to an everted rim, covered overall with a dark brownish-red glaze thinning to white at the rim, seal marks in underglaze blue (3)

Lot 159. A group of six monochrome vases, Qing dynasty, 17th-19th century. Height of tallest 6 1/2  in., 16.5 cm. Estimate 8,000 — 12,000 USD. Lot sold 27,500 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

comprising a vase of compressed bottle form covered in a pearl-gray glaze, 18th century; a robin's egg-glazed hu-form vase with elephant-head handles, 18th / 19th century, a 'guan'-style 'lotus pod' flower vase, 19th century;  an iron-rust-glazed meiping, 18th / 19th century, a celadon-glazed pear-shaped vase; and a white-glazed soft paste double gourd vase with incised 'dragon' decoration, 17th / 18th century (6).

Lot 165. A fine and rare white-glazed soft paste vase, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Height 5 1/8  in., 13 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD. Lot sold 18,750 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

of indented elliptical section, the waisted quatrefoil neck rising to a lipped and everted rim flanked on either side by pairs of openwork archaistic dragon-form handles, all supported on a conforming splayed quatrelobed foot, the body with delicately molded design of a pair of confronting dragons on each side, fourkui dragons on the shoulder, the neck with upright leaves beneath a trefoil band, the base with a beribbonedruyi scepter, covered overall in a finely crackled ivory-white glaze.

Provenance: Private European Collection.

Note: The bold angularity of the present piece is not uncommon among other soft paste white-glazed vases of the period.  A Qianlong mark and period soft paste vase with similar open work handles and archaistic motifs is illustrated in the Min Chiu Society Exhibition of Monochrome Ceramics, 1977, Catalogue, no. 141. Another Qianlong imperial vase but of globular shape and featuring similar sharply outlined shoulders is illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics from the Koger Collection, 1985, no. 140.

For Qianlong imperial vases with similar decoration see Peter Lam, Ethereal Elegance: Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, no. 3, pp. 88-89 and Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1990, no. 82.

Lot 229. A carved and molded porcelain 'Landscape' snuff bottle, signed Chen Guozhi, Qing dynasty, 19th century. Height 2 7/8  in., 7.4 cm. Estimate 5,000 — 7,000 USD. Lot sold 15,000 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

decorated with a continuous scene of a rustic dwelling sheltered by trees, by a riverbank with towering peaks and a waterfall in the distance, the base with incised signature reading Chen Guozhi zuo (made by Chen Guozhi). 

Provenance: Acquired in Illinois, United States, 1999. 

Note: For a discussion on Chen Guozhi, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ko Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles,The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 6, part 3, Arts of the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, p. 759, where a similar snuff bottle by the artist is illustrated, no. 1353. 

Lot 161. A ‘Guan’-type cong vase, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Height 5 3/8  in., 13.6 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 25,000 USD. Lot sold 15,000 USD. Photo Sotheby’s

of archaic jade form, the square section straight-sided body rising from a short foot to a narrow tapering circular neck, with bagua (Eight Trigrams) molded corners, covered overall with a pale blue-green crackled glaze. 

Provenance: Collection of Mr. P. H. Guimaraens.

Exhibited: Oriental Ceramic Society, London, November 12th – December 13th 1952, no. 114.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 16 sept. 2014

Lot 160. A rare white-glazed ‘Dragon’ vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Height 7 1/4  in., 18.3 cm. Estimate 3,000 — 5,000 USD. Lot sold 6,250 USD. Photo Sotheby’s

of slender ovoid form, the neck encircled at the base with three strings, the body carved with two dragons amongst waves, covered overall in a white glaze, apocryphal Xuande mark within double circles.

Provenance: Acquired in Boston, 1976. 

Lot 163. A white-glazed ‘Dragon’ dish, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Diameter 8 5/8  in., 21.8 cm. Estimate 5,000 — 7,000 USD. Lot sold 5,625 USD. Photo Sotheby’s.

the interior carved with a central medallion of a writhing dragon amongst waves, the rounded sides with four different fish, applied overall with a slightly bluish-white glaze. 

Provenance: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 437.

Lot 112. Gabriele Cappellini, called Calzolaretto (Active in Ferrara in the seond and third decades of the 16th century), Portrait Of Laura Pisani, inscribed and dated on the paper sheet on the table:  LAV. PISI. / ANNOR / XX / MDXXV (1525), oil on canvas, 37 1/4 by 31 1/4 in.; 94.6 by 79.4 cm. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 USD. Lot sold 170,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

Provenance: Vernon James Watney, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, England, by 1907;
Thence by inheritance in 1928 to his wife, Lady Margaret Watney, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire;
Thence by inheritance in 1943 to her son, Oliver Vernon Watney, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire;
Held in trust by the estate upon his death in 1966;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 23 June 1967, lot 23 (as by Dosso Dossi);
Where acquired by J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), Malibu and Sutton Place;
Held in trust by the estate upon his death, and distributed to The  J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978.

Literature: B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York and London 1907, p. 209 (as by Dosso Dossi);
H. Mendelsohn, Das Werk der Dossi, Munich 1914, pp. 190-191 (as by Dosso Dossi);
V.J. Watney, A Catalogue of Pictures and Miniatures at Cornbury and 11 Berkeley Square, Oxford 1915, p. 12, no. 30 (as "Called Dosso Dossi, Giovanni Dossi");
A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, vol. IX:  "La Pittura del Cinquecento," Milan 1928, p. 976;
B. Berenson, Pitture Italiane del Rinascimento, Milan 1936, p. 150 (as by Dosso Dossi);
B. Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto, Milan 1956, p. 95, reproduced fig. 166 (as Lorenzo Lotto, formerly attributed to Dosso Dossi);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School, London 1957, Vol. I, p. 101 (as by Lorenzo Lotto);
A. Mezzetti, Il Dosso e Battista Ferraresi, Milan 1965, p. 77, no. 29 (as by Dosso Dossi, with a question about the quality);
"Nachrichten aus dem Kunsthandel," in Pantheon, (July/August 1967), p. 316, reproduced;
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 35, reproduced (as Circle of Dosso Dossi).

Note: The authorship of this striking and impressive portrait has long puzzled scholars of Italian art, as has the identity of the beautiful young woman who is depicted.  She appears to be a member of the large and powerful Pisani family, which had branches in Ferrara and Venice, among other Italian cities.  This woman was most likely a member of the Ferrarese branch and possibly a poet, given the way she is here depicted.  When Bernard Berenson first published the portrait in 1907, he gave it to Dosso Dossi, as did Henriette Mendelsohn in 1914; however, the attribution was always considered slightly problematic, as the face of the woman was inconsistent with other known portraits by Dosso.  In fact, Berenson himself later included the Portrait of Laura Pisani in both his Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School and his study on Lorenzo Lotto, attributing it in full to Lotto in both publications.  

Berenson's attribution to Lotto was based on his belief that the work was a pendant to another portrait thought to be by Lotto, the Portrait of Antonio Correr (formerly, Ricketts and Shannon Collection, London), also of 1525, which featured an almost identical sheet of paper with the inscription "ANT. COR. / ANNOR / XXVII / MDXXV."1  In spite of the similarities between the written inscriptions in these paintings, the attribution of the present work to Lotto does not seem tenable.  We know, for example, that Antonio Correr married a Venetian woman by the name of Elizabetta Priuli in 1521,2 four years before these portraits were executed.  That a gentleman of some stature in Venice should be depicted in a portrait with a woman who was not his wife would seem very strange indeed.  Additionally, the crispness of Laura's slightly planar face and the bold, geometric design of her carpet-covered table are at odds with the softness and dark palette of the Antonio Correrportrait.         

The connection of the Portrait of Laura Pisani to the circle of artists working around Dosso Dossi and his brother Battista seems much more compelling.  A comparison between the present work and Dosso's Portrait of a Woman with an Ermine (Laura Dianti), in the Musée Condé, Chantilly confirms the association:  both women wear diaphanous white blouses with ruching and black trim around neck and cuffs under voluminous black gowns; both have a delicate gold chain around their necks and an elaborate jeweled headpiece, through which their dark hair is interwoven.  Such costume was typical of Ferrarese women during the 1520s and 30s, and these details firmly place the work within this milieu.  

Gabriele Cappellini, called Calzolaretto emerges from the large number of artists working with and around Dosso Dossi as the likeliest author for the present work.  Very little is known about Calzolaretto, who is recorded in Dosso's workshop as late as 1540, when he received payments in February and June for gilding the frames for Dosso and Battista Dossi's Saint Michael Overcoming Satan and Saint George and the Dragon from their patron, Duke Ercole II of Ferrara.3  Only two paintings, both altarpieces, have been firmly given to Calzolaretto in the current literature:  Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata with Saints Peter, James the Greater and Louis, King of France, of circa 1515 (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara, inv. no. 101) and The Apparition of the Madonna and Child to Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Presence of Ludovico Arivieri and his Wife, of 1522 (Archbishop's Residence, Ferrara).  Both works show similarities to the present portrait:  the face of Saint John the Evangelist from the Arivieri altarpiece and in particular, the faces of Saints James the Greater and Louis, King of France in the Pinacoteca panel are remarkably similar in construction and countenance to Laura Pisani.  The identification of the Portrait of Laura Pisani with the work of Calzolaretto is an important step in reconstructing his oeuvre and in distinguishing between the works of Dosso's followers in general.  As the first secular painting to be given to the artist, the Portrait of Laura Pisani is an important stepping stone along the path towards a better understanding of Calzolaretto, the extent of his participation in Dosso's workshop and the elaboration of his own unique artistic personality.  

We are grateful to Keith Christiansen and Mauro Lucco for each independently suggesting the attribution to Calzolaretto on the basis of firsthand inspection and photographs respectively.  

An alternate attribution to Sebastiano Filippi has been suggested by Alessandro Ballarin on the basis of photographs.  

1.  B. Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto, p. 95, reproduced fig. 165.
2.  Ibid.
3.  P. Humfrey, M. Lucco, et. al., Dosso Dossi:  Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, exhibition catalogue, New York 1998, p. 224.

Lot 124. Lombard School, circa 1520 - 1530, Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Sword, oil on canvas, 29 by 24 1/2 in.; 73.7 by 62.2 cm. Estimate 100,000—200,000 USD. Lot Sold 146,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

Provenance: Hugh Morrison, Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire;
And thence by descent to The Rt. Hon. Lord Margadale of Islay, T.D., Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire; 
His sale, London, Christie's, 2 July 1965, lot 55 (as by Giulio Campi);
Where purchased by Heinemann, on behalf of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Lugano.

Exhibited: London, Grosvenor Gallery, Third National Loan, 1914-1915, no. 39 (as A Gentleman of the Colonna Family by Giorgione);
London, Burlington House, Exhibition of Italian Art: 1200 – 1900, 1 January – 20 March 1930, no. 375 (as Attributed to Giulio Campi).

Literature: B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford 1932, p. 124 (as by Campi);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London 1968, v. 1, p. 74 (as by Campi);
R. Heinemann, et. alia, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, entry by R. Palluchini, Castagnola 1969, pp. 289-90, reproduced pl. 248.

Note: This refined and imposing depiction of a nobleman exemplifies the elegant portrait style practiced in eastern Lombardy in the opening decades of the 16^th Century. It depicts a young aristocrat, fashionably dressed in muted colors, against a grey-brown background, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Stylistically it is datable to the mid 1520s, a dating which appears to be confirmed by the dress of the young nobleman. He is wearing a brown doublet over a white chemise which was fashionable in Northern Italy throughout the opening years of the cinquecento. His headdress, however, is typical of the third decade of the century: a beret or large black hat, adorned with an elaborately decorated hat pin, worn over a richly decorated, turban-like cap. This fashion had a wide currency in Italy, from Rome to the North, during this decade. Interestingly, the hat pin is also suggestive of this date. Such hat pins were worn by gentlemen throughout Europe in the early 16^th Century, and usually bore their owner's impresa, patron saint, or some other relevant emblem. In the present case, this seems to be a female allegorical figure of some sort, holding a banderole above her head.¹ This figure is strikingly similar to the depictions of Old Testament prophets painted by the Brescian artist Gerolamo Romanino in circa 1522-24 in the San Sacramento chapel, and would suggest a similar date for the portrait.²

While the earliest history of this elegant portrait remains unknown, it was first recorded in the illustrious collections of the Morrison family at Fonthill House, in Wiltshire (see Provenance). As was the case with much of the Fonthill collection, it was probably acquired by the wealthy antiquarian Alfred Morrison (1821-1897), but it was only recorded when it was lent by his son Hugh to an exhibition in 1914.³ The attribution of this portrait has intrigued scholars since its reappearance nearly one hundred years ago. Dismissing the name of Giorgione which it bore while in the Fonthill collection, Berenson considered it a work of the Cremonese painter Giulio Campi, and it remained as such until Ridolfo Palluchini published it as a work of Romanino after it was cleaned in the late 1960s and entered the Thyssen collection (see 1969 Literature). The painting has not been discussed in more recent literature, undoubtedly due in part to its inaccessibility in private collections. It was, however, known to scholars through photographs, including Federico Zeri, who endorsed the attribution to Romanino, at least on the basis of images. More recently, a number of other possibilities have been proposed, including Giovanni Cariani.

What is certain is that the portrait was made by an artist working within the triangle of the cities of Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona. Certain Venetian influences are perceptible (hence the early attribution to Giorgione), and the pose and presentation of the portrait are certainly reminiscent of a number of artists from these three artistic centers. The attribution to Romanino, for example, was likely based on comparison to the Portrait of a Gentleman, now in the collection of the Allentown Art Museum, Allentown Pennsylvania (inv. 60.23). That painting depicts a similarly bearded man, with a the same type of headdress and also grasping his sword with his right hand, although turned three quarters to the right. The two canvases are even of nearly identical sizes, so close as to almost act as a pendant pair. Similarly, there are echoes of Moretto da Brescia in the present work, such as the magnificent full length Portrait of a Man, dated 1526, now in the National Gallery, London. The artist who painted the present Portrait of a Bearded Man was clearly aware of the innovations of his fellow artists, and had the skill and finesse to rival them.

Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture, 27 Jan 11, New York

Lot 326. Domenico Fiasella (Sarzana 1589-1669 Genoa), Portrait of a young man with a sketchbook, oil on canvas, 40 1/2 by 33 1/2 in.; 102.9 by 85.1 cm. Estimate 80,000—120,000 USD. Lot Sold 140,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

Provenance: Apponyi Collection, Budapest;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 21 June 1968, lot 101 (as Murillo);
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 19 January 1984, lot 111;
Anonymous sale (The Property of a French Private Collector), New York, Sotheby's, 30 January 1998, lot 78;
Anonymous sale (Property from a European Collection), London, Sotheby's, 13 December 2001, lot 55;
There purchased by the present owner.

Note: Following the departure of Bernardo Strozzi and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Fiasella became the dominant artistic personality in Genoa from the mid-1630s, painting a number of monumental altarpieces in the city. His portraits are now very rare: P. Donati (Doemnico Fiasella `Il Sarzana', Genoa 1974, pl. 44) reproduces only a Portrait of a Young Lady in the Accademia Ligustica in Genoa; while a Portrait of Constantin Gentile is also recorded in the collection of the Marchese Ambrogio Doria (exhibited Genoa, Palazzo Reale, Mostra di Pittori Genovesi del Seicento e del Settecento, 1938, no. 32).

Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture, 27 Jan 11, New York

Lot 530. A Small Porcelain Scholar's Rock. Length 3 1/2  in., 9 cm. Estimate 800 — 1,200 USD. Lot sold 12,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's. 

naturalistically molded in the form a craggy 'rock' of irregular outline and deep undulating fissures, the porcelain a dark gray color, fitted wood stand (2)

Lot 3005. An inscribed and dated Lingbi cloud-form scholar’s rock, signed Jin Nong (1687-1763); signed Gao Fenghan (1683-1749), dated cyclical yimao year, corresponding to 1735 and of the period; 22 3/8 in. (57 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 1,800,000 - HKD 2,800,000. Sold for HK$2,200,000 ($285,199). © Christie's Images Ltd 2015

The dark-grey Lingbi stone is of elongated form rising and twisting to create an internal tension, with angled protuberances and crevices, incised on one side with a four-line inscription excerpted from Eulogy of the Eighteen Luohan by the Song dynasty poet Su Shi, signed Jin Nong; another side with a long inscription which can be translated as 'This stone is awkward-shaped but has a clear sound when struck, therefore one can only comprehend it with one's heart/ mind. If Mi Fu saw it he would bow down before it, if it were Su Shi he would fold his arms in admiration.' Signed Fenghan with a cyclicalyimao date, followed by a seal reading Gao, wood stand.

Note: Jin Nong (1687-1763) was a well-known painter active in Yangzhou area during the 18th century, and was coined as one of the 'Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou'. His non-orthodox painting style with unusual themes deviated from the literati tradition of muted landscapes and Buddhist imageries. Despite being an extremely learned scholar who had mastered both calligraphy and painting, Jin Nong never succeeded in attaining an official post through the civil service examination, and instead had to make a living by selling his paintings in Yangzhou. 

The other signature Fenghan refers to Gao Fenghan (1683-1749), a highly accomplished painter, calligrapher and seal carver most famously known for his association with the 'Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou', a group of painters regarded for their unorthodox and individualistic painting styles. Born ito an erudite family, he served briefly in the government as governor of She County in Anhui, but was embroiled in a series of political conflicts leading to a short period of imprisonment, during which his right hand was paralysed. Once his charges were cleared and he was released from prison, Gao resigned from political life and moved to Yangzhou, where he became acquainted with the local literati circle and began to make a living by selling his paintings, which were highly sought after by wealthy families and connoisseurs in the area. After losing mobility in his right hand, Gao underwent rigorous training to paint with his left hand, resulting in an even bolder and freer style, which earned him his place as one of the greatest painters in Yangzhou and he was sometimes regarded as one of the famed Eight Eccentrics. 

Lingbi stones have been the most prized and highly regarded stones by Chinese literati since the Song dynasty. Excavated from deep underground in Qing Shan area in northern Anhui, the Lingbi limestone has an extraordinarily high density which contributes to a clear and resonant sound when being tapped, leading to its association with ceremonial music. The Heavenly Temple (Tiantan) in Beijing, for example, has a well-preserved set of Lingbi stone bianqing chimes. Lingbi stones are also cherished for their deep colour and lustrous surface with a moist appearance at times. Though textual records indicate that Lingbi stones were treasured as garden rocks in the Song dynasty, extant examples of large, garden-sized Lingbi stones, such as the current lot, are extremely rare. A black Lingbi tiger-form rock of comparable size (52 cm. high) was included in the exhibition Worlds Within Worlds: The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks, The Asia Society, New York and others, 1996-1999, catalogue, pl. 2. In the catalogue entry, Robert Mowry states that 'This tiger-shaped rock numbers among the larger extant Lingbi stones, garden-sized specimens now being virtually unknown'.

Lot 3019. A Qilian'Stream and Grottoes' stone, Qing dynasty (1644-1911); 8 1/4 in. (21 cm). Estimate HKD 900,000 - HKD 1,200,000. Sold for HKD 1,120,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2015

The dark beige stone is suggestive of a horizontal mountainscape with grottoes. The characteristic concentric wrinkles of the stone have been creatively utilised to represent a rushing stream cascading through the rocks, while the uneven surface is rendered a beaded texture by the integrally formed nodules, wood stand, Japanese wood box.

Exhibited: Henry Moore Foundation, Objects of Contemplation: Natural Sculptures from the Qing dynasty, Leeds, 12 December 2009 - 7 March 2010

Note: Qilian rocks come from the mountain of the same name in Gansu province. The rocks are particularly appreciated for their distinctive texture, most notably the concentric wrinkles which resemble enlargements of fingerprints, and the integrally nodules that imbue the surface with a beaded texture. The current rock is particularly well worked to evoke the imagery of a miniature landscape encompassing meandering streams and rocky valleys, which befits the functionality of the scholar’s rock as a microcosm of the universe through which scholars could meditate within the confines of the studio. 

The expansion of the canon of scholar’s rock to include Qilian stones took place around the Ming dynasty when the supply of Lingbi and Ying stones became largely exhausted, encouraging scholars to explore other types of stones for appreciation. It occurred in conjunction with a shift of taste when the preference for stone colours broadened from the previously subdued palette of black, grey and white to more colourful shades such as russet-brown, gold and turquoise. 

Compare to a smaller Qilian scholar's rock resembling an arched bridge from the Master of Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 April 2014, lot 3636.

Lot 3690. A carved pear-shaped celadon 'Flower' vase, yuhuchunping, 14th century; 33.2 cm., 13 in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,200,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby’s

exquisitely potted with a pear-shaped body tapering to a tall waisted neck and flared mouthrim, the exterior carved with blooming florets wreathed in intertwining sprigs, all above a band of petal lappets, the neck similarly decorated with stylistic floral scrolls, covered overall with an unctuous even sea-green glaze save for the unglazed footring burnt to an orange-russet during the firing.

Provenance: An old Japanese collection.

Note: Celadon vases of this form decorated in this style were made after contemporaneous wares manufactured in the official kilns of Jingdezhen. Similar to their underglaze-blue and underglaze-red counterparts, Longquan celadon vases were decorated with a great variety of designs, such as lotus scrolls, gardenia and fruiting grape-vines. Julian Thompson in ‘Chinese Celadons’, Arts of Asia, November/December 1993, p. 64, notes that by the 15th century ‘it appears that the Jingdezhen wares had become so popular that the Longquan potters had to adapt the complicated painted designs to their own technique of carving’.

A closely related vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, pl. 161; another was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st October 1991, lot 732; and a third, but decorated around the shoulder with an asymmetrical ruyi-head border, sold in these rooms, 29th November 1976, lot 452, and again, 5th November 1996, lot 635. It is published in Thompson, op. cit., fig. 14, where the author notes that it closely follows a Hongwu prototype, p. 64. Compare also a pear-shaped vase incised with a lotus scroll, illustrated in Michael Sullivan, Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades in the Collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, London, 1963, pl. 95b; and another carved with fruiting grapes framed by a similar keyfret border and petal panels with foliate motifs, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3, pt. II, London, 2006, pl. 1582.

For examples of related Jingdezhen counterparts, see a vase painted in copper-red with a peony scroll, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, col. Pl. 214; and another, decorated in underglaze blue with a lotus scroll, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2008, pl. 14.

Sotheby’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 oct. 2014

Lot 3691. A Rare large blue and white ‘Lotus’ guan jar, Late Yuan- Early Ming Dynasty; 50.5 cm., 19 7/8 in. Estimate 5,000,000 — 7,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 6,040,000 HKD (615,987 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s

robustly potted in ovoid form with a short splayed neck set with a slightly everted rim flange, boldly painted in a dark, greyish cobalt blue with a broad stylised lotus scroll around the centre, with six large blooms alternating in full view and in profile among dense scrolling foliage and attendant buds, set between pendent and upright petal lappets draping the shoulder and skirting the waist, the shoulder lappets containing Buddhist and other auspicious emblems supported on lotus flowers, the lappets below with further emblems alternating with lotus sprays, all below a knobbed classic scroll collaring neck and a lingzhiscroll around the foot.

Provenance: Meiyintang collection.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7th April 2011, lot 42.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1623.

Note: The style of this lotus scroll with its dense frilly petals and curling foliage, as well as the solid construction of the jar and the colour of the cobalt blue all suggest a date very late in the Yuan or early in the Ming dynasty, in the Hongwu period. Altogether, the painting style seems closer to Yuan dynasty prototypes than to the fully developed Hongwu designs, which tend to be more strictly composed and executed in a paler cobalt blue, and would seem to represent a different stage in the development of blue and white porcelain.

A companion piece to this highly unusual jar from the Au Bak Ling collection, sold in these rooms 3rd May 1994, lot 33, was included in the exhibition 100 Masterpieces of Imperial Chinese Ceramics from the Au Bakling Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998.

Lot 3698. A superb blue and white Palace bowl, Mark and period of Chenghua (1464-1487); ; 14.7 cm., 5 3/4  in. Estimate 40,000,000 — 60,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 56,120,000 HKD (5,723,378 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s.

masterfully potted with smooth rounded sides, gracefully rising from a tapered foot to a slightly flared rim, superbly painted in characteristic soft tones of cobalt-blue in outlines infilled with wash, the exterior with a gently undulating meander of musk mallow, the four blossoms in full bloom with tender flaring petals, interspersed with star-shaped leaves, each bloom with a leaf delicately tucked and partially concealed behind, all between double line bands at the rim and foot, the interior with a central medallion enclosing a single flower head within a double circle, encircled by a similarly exquisite musk mallow meander to that on the exterior bearing five blooms and pointed leaves, beneath a double-line band at the rim, covered overall in a thick unctuous glaze fired to a waxy finish, the base inscribed with the four-character mark within a double circle.

Provenance: Christie’s Hong Kong, 20th March 1990, lot 523.
Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th April 1997, lot 73.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7th October 2006, lot 908.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8th October 2009, lot 1692.

Literature: Li Zhengzhong and Zhu Yuping, Taoci yanjiu jiansheng congshu[Studies on the connoisseurship of ceramics], vol. 3: Zhongguo qinghua ci [Chinese blue and white], Taipei, 1993, fig. 101.

Muted Elegance A Superb Musk-Mallow Palace Bowl
Regina Krahl

The porcelains of the Chenghua period (1465-87) can be considered the epitome of the unceasing efforts of the Jingdezhen potters at the imperial kilns to prove their originality in design and their outstanding craftsmanship. They represent the peak of material refinement and artistry, and are among the most idiosyncratic and distinct creations in terms of their decorative style.

The porcelain stone and glaze used for Chenghua imperial porcelains are arguably the finest ever achieved at Jingdezhen. The sensual pleasure of the touch of a Chenghua porcelain vessel is unmatched by porcelains of any other period, as the smooth, pleasing surface texture is unrivalled in its tactility. The ‘softness’ of the hard material can be gleaned even from a photograph. After a beginning where the Xuande period still supplied the main inspiration, the potters of the Chenghua reign arrived at their own distinctive style towards the latter part of the period. Palace bowls were made for only a few years towards the end of the Chenghua reign – opinions still vary between late 1470s to early 1480s, or just the 1480s.

Unlike the crisp and glossy glazes of the best Xuande wares, those of the Chenghua reign are more muted, covering the blue design with a most delicate veil. The cobalt pigment is much more even than it was in the Xuande period, without any ‘heaping and piling’. After decades of importing cobalt from the Middle East to achieve a deep and intense colour, native cobalt was deliberately chosen in the Chenghua reign – either on its own or in combination with imported pigment – to create a very different effect. The decoration is of a striking artlessness and immediacy, again in a deliberate move away from earlier models, focusing special attention on the material.

With such new goals and high specifications at the imperial workshops, it is not surprising that Chenghua porcelains are extremely rare, in fact, the rarest Chinese Imperial porcelains. Liu Xinyuan graphically describes the volume of fragments recovered from the site of the Ming Imperial kilns, where the Chenghua (1465-87) fragments equal less than half those unearthed from the Xuande stratum (1426-35), even though the latter period was so much shorter (Liu Xinyuan ‘Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain from Historical Records’, The Emperor’s Broken China: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, exhibition catalogue, Sotheby’s London, 1995, p. 11). The scarcity of sherds at the kiln site is mirrored by the rarity of surviving examples. Of those by far the greatest number is preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Of the remaining examples most are today in museum collections. Only some two dozen Chenghua pieces of any type are recorded to be in private hands (see Julian Thompson’s ‘List of Patterns of Chenghua Porcelain in Collections Worldwide’, ibid., pp. 116-129).

What is generally known as ‘palace bowls’ are bowls of fine proportion, painted in underglaze blue with a flower or fruit design of apparent simplicity. Bowls with flower scroll decoration were of course also made in the Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande periods, but those of the Chenghua reign are unique in the deliberate irregularity introduced to a seemingly regular pattern. In the present design, blooms basically alternate with leaves, but on the inside one sprig of leaves appears behind a bloom rather than beside it, and on the outside an added bud similarly interrupts the regular rhythm. The stems therefore do not undulate in a predictable manner, but deliberately break up any symmetry. It is this slight deviation from the orderly arrangement – a daring and unique concept for imperial works of art, where any individual touch was generally shunned and machine-like precision and perfection were required – that makes this and other palace bowl designs vibrate, as if pervaded with some quiet motion. In this respect Chenghua palace bowls like the present example are quite unlike any earlier or later imperial designs.

The musk-mallow design with its combination of softly rounded, multi-lobed flower petals and contrasting pointed, serrated finger-like leaves is perhaps the most spectacular design among the various palace bowl patterns, many of which have a plain inside. Only three other patterns exist of palace bowls painted both inside and out, one showing scrolling lotus stems, one lily scrolls, and one a gardenia scroll outside and a mixed flower scroll inside. The musk mallow is easy to identify through the classic botanical literature (fig. 1). It was used already on some Yongle vessels, but extremely rarely, for example, on a ewer in Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, vol. 2, no. 617, and an identical one sold in these rooms, 30th October 2002, lot 271 (fig. 2). The depiction of the flower at that period was very different, lacking the clear distinction between darker outlines and paler washes, as well as the white rims of the petals seen on the present bowl.

Fig. 1. Huang Shukui, Abelmosehus Manihot, Mask Mallow. After: Bencao gangmu, vol. 1, p. 102 bottom left.

Fig.2. Blue and white ewer, Ming dynasty, Yongle period, private collection. Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30th October 2002, lot 271.

The present pattern exists in two slightly different variations, one with the scrolling leaf stems on the inside crossing, as in the present case, the other with the stems not crossing. The central flower-head is also derived from flower-scroll bowls of the Xuande period, see Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 61. Its unusual seven-petalled form again displays the peculiar Chenghua tendency towards diversity.

The present bowl is one of only two bowls of this design still remaining in private hands, while eleven examples are in museum collection, six of them in Asia and five in Europe; none are preserved in mainland China or in the United States. Beside this piece only three such bowls have ever been offered at auction, one for the last time in 1951, another in 1973 and the third in 2013. Examples of this design have been recovered in fragments from the waste heaps of the Ming Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, and one reconstructed example was included in the exhibition The Emperor’s Broken China: ReconstructingChenghua Porcelain, Sotheby’s London, 1995, cat. no. 69 (fig. 3).

Lot 3692. A rare white-glazed ewer, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1402-1424); 29.7 cm., 11 5/8  in. Estimate 2,800,000 — 3,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 5,080,000 HKD (518,082 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s

the finely potted pear-shaped body rising from a splayed foot to a generously rounded lower body extending to a narrow waisted neck, the shoulders set with a ribbed ear handle ending in a carved ruyi-head across from the tall spout secured with a strut carved with whispy clouds, all below the trumpet mouth, glazed overall in a thick smooth ‘sweet-white’ (tianbai) glaze.

Note: The milky semi-translucent white glaze, combined with the elegant and balanced shape of this ewer reveals the exceptional craftsmanship and quality of materials achieved at Jingdezhen in the early 15th century. The white glaze was gradually refined through an improved composition and slight raise in firing temperature. The cold blue-tinted glazes of the Song dynasty (960-1279), known as qingbai, developed first to the more subtle, matt and opaque shufutype of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), before eventually reaching the superb smooth and pure-white of the Yongle reign, known as tianbai(‘sweet white’). White wares were reserved for ritual ware in the Yongle period, and the tianbaiglaze was specially devised and exclusively reserved for monochrome vessels, a different glaze recipe being used for blue and white. Although ritual vessels feature predominantly among tianbai porcelain, a variety of different ewer shapes, of which the present is perhaps the most characteristic,  was recovered at the waste heaps of Jingdezhen and included in the Chang Foundation exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, cat. nos 95-99.

Compare a ewer of this form, incised with a floral design and with a loop on the handle, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-11; one in the Manno Art Museum, Osaka, published in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 7, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 555; another from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd collection at the Asia Society, New York, illustrated in Denise Patry Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art, New York, 1994, pl. 171; a fourth ewer in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, included in the Museum’s exhibition Beauty and Tranquillity. The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, pl. 93.

The form of this pear-shaped ewer, which is often said to have derived from a Middle Eastern metal shape, may in fact have developed from small stumpy egg-shaped ewers produced in the Southern Song dynasty, which had shorter spouts and no separate neck and therefore lacked the joining strut. In the Yuan dynasty a form similar to the present appeared, as seen on aqingbai ewer recovered from a shipwreck sunk off the coast of Sinan in AD 1323, illustrated in Relics Salvaged from the Seabed off Sinan. Materials I, Seoul, 1985, pl. 94; and another from the Meiyintang collection, published in Regina Krahl,Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 2010, pl. 1614. This shape was then refined in proportions and reached its most mature, balanced form in the Yongle reign, after which it disappeared from the Jingdezhen’s repertoire (see Regina Krahl, ‘A Rare Yongle Blue and White Ewer’, Sotheby’s, 8th April 2010, p. 164).

Lot 3694. A fine blue and white ‘Lotus scroll’ bowl, Mark and period of Xuande (1426-1435); 19.5 cm., 7 5/8  in. Estimate 3,000,000 — 4,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 5,080,000 HKD (518,082 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s

finely potted with deep rounded sides rising from a slightly tapered foot to an everted rim, the exterior painted with shaded tones of cobalt-blue with characteristic ‘heaping and piling’ with five large lotus blooms borne on a leafy scroll meandering around the bowl, all between a broad key-fret band and upright stylised lotus petal lappets, the interior similarly painted with a central medallion of a lotus bloom wreathed in leafy scrolls, surrounded by a composite floral scroll around the cavetto, the inner rim bordered with a band of stylised florets issuing from a foliate scroll, the foot bordered with a classic scroll band, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double circle

Provenance: Kochukyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo

Note: Exemplifying the refinement of the classic early Ming aesthetic, this bowl embodies the ideals of harmony and precision in its decoration. The floral blooms on both the interior and exterior flow seamlessly around the vessel, and are carefully bordered by a variety of decorative bands that also serve to enhance the gentle curves of the bowl. In its fine potting and smooth and tactile glaze, the present bowl displays the characteristic ‘heaping and piling’ of the cobalt-blue painting to give the designs depth and texture – a much-copied trademark of imperial blue-and-white from the early Ming dynasty.

A closely related example is published in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum. Hsuan-te Ware I, Taipei, 2000, pl. 76; and another in the British Museum, London, is included in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, pl. 4:24, together with a slightly smaller example, pl. 4:25. Bowls of this type are more commonly found of slightly smaller size; see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ming chu qing hua ci, vol. 2, Beijing, 2002, pl. 149; another, from the Eumorfopoulos and Braithwaite collections, sold in these rooms, 30th April 1991, lot 12; and a third example, formerly in the Alfred Clarke collection, published in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, pt. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 21.

These bowls are inspired by earlier bowls of the Hongwu reign, which were decorated with a simpler design of a flowerscroll between keyfret borders; see one excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, included in the exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 14; and a copper-red decorated example from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 222. During the Yongle reign the design was embellished with further decorative bands; see a Yongle bowl illustrated in John Alexander Pope Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 47 (top left); and a slightly smaller example included in the exhibition Beauty and Tranquillity. The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cat. no. 90.