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A barrel-form sancai-glazed ‘lion’ garden stool, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

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A barrel-form sancai-glazed ‘lion’ garden stool, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

Lot 2832. A barrel-form sancai-glazed ‘lion’ garden stool, Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 19.½ in. (49.5 cm) high. Estimate HKD 80,000 - HKD 120,000Price realised HKD 75,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The stool is potted in a barrel form with recessed neck and rectangular top and base. The centre of the top is pierced with a cash medallion encircled by a square section with canted corners of stylised bats in flight. The vertical edge of each canted corner is moulded in high relief with a lion mask. The square base is surrounded by a raised band of lotus petals, the shoulder with a simulated stool cover bordered by ruyi-head motifs.

Property from the Collection of Ronald W. Longsdorf.

Provenance: K.Y. Fine Arts, Hong Kong.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020


A magnificent polychrome-enamelled model of a celestial official, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

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A magnificent polychrome-enamelled model of a celestial official, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

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Lot 2833. A magnificent polychrome-enamelled model of a celestial official, Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 45 in. (114.4 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 700,000 - HKD 900,000Price realised HKD 3,725,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The large figure is decorated in colourful shades of green, yellow, aubergine, turquoise and cream, modelled wearing long flowing robes and an ornate hat with the hands clasped together to hold a tablet in front of the chest. He is depicted seated upright on a throne with a separate base, supported on cabriole legs detailed with monster masks.

Property from the collection of Geronimo Berenguer De Los Reyes Jr.

Provenance: J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) Collection, New York
Louise Morgan Collection, Salutation, West Island, Glen Cove, Long Island
Sold at Christie’s New York, 28 March 1996, lot 342.

LiteratureThe Chinese Collection at the GBR Museum, Geronimo Berenguer de los Reyes, Jr. Foundation, Manila, 1998, pl. 30
Kerry Nguyen-Long, ‘Ceramics from the Chinese Antique Collection of the GBR Museum’, Arts of Asia, January-February 1998, fig. 12.

NoteIt is highly probable that the current figure belongs to the group of seven figures of Daoist deities from the Morgan family collection, which was sold after Louise C. Morgan’s death on the premises of the family home ‘Salutation’ West Island, Glen Cove, New York, 29 May 1974, as lots 76, 77, 78, 124, 125, 126 and 127. The current lot appears to have been lot 76 within this group.

Three other figures from this group have reappeared on auctions, two of which, from the Estate of Bernice Richard, were sold at Christie’s New York, 2 December 1993, lot 276 and the third sold at Sotheby’s New York, 17 September 2013, lot 49. Compare also to two further figures of similar modelling and dimension to the Morgan group, one from the Helliot Collection, Paris, was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 June 1983, lot 136, and illustrated by Anthony du Boulay in Christies Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 179, no. 3 (fig. 1); the second, missing its base, from the collection of Carolyn Trippe, Palm Beach, Florida, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 16 September 2015, lot 467.

Both Buddhist and Daoist sancai-glazed stoneware figures were popularly commissioned during the Ming dynasty. For a similar sancai Daoist figure seated on a multi-tiered pedestal, representing the deity Yuan Shi Tian Zun (The Primal Celestial Excellency), from the Tsui Art Foundation, Hong Kong, see Stephen Little, Taoism and the Arts of China, Chicago, 2000, no. 68 (203 cm. high). Another figure also representing Yuan Shi Tian Zun (123.3 cm. high) with several unglazed areas including the hair, flesh and shoulder medallions, and a Budai figure (119.2 cm. high) similar in style and palette to the Morgan group dated to the 20th year of Chenghua period (1484) by inscription from the British Museum, are illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, nos. 19:1 and 19:2.

Compare also to a smaller but closely related sancai-glazed figure of the Daoist God of Literature, Wenchang in the Royal Ontario Museum (86 cm. high), illustrated in Henry Trubner, Royal Ontario Museum, The Far Eastern Collection, Toronto, 1968, p. 72, no. 90; and to another figure of Daoist deity (60.3 cm. high) dated to the 17th year of Chenghua period (1481) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number: 1971.163.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020

The National Gallery acquires painting by Camille Pissarro

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Camille Pissarro, (1830 - 1903), Late afternoon in our Meadow, 1887. Oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm© The National Gallery, London.

 LONDON.- On the 190th birthday of Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), the National Gallery has announced the acquisition of his Late afternoon in our Meadow (1887) which has been on loan to the Gallery since November 2019.

This is the 12th painting by Pissarro to enter the National Gallery’s collection and it has been acquired through a hybrid Acceptance in Lieu with the support of a generous legacy from James Francis George Wilson, 2020.

An acquisition of great importance, this is the first of Pissarro’s Divisionist works to enter the collection, and the first painting of the 1880s, joining a group of pictures which range from an early scene in Louveciennes to a late view of the Louvre in winter.

It can be viewed in Room 44 from today.

The painting was first acquired in 1888 by Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, the great supporter and collector of the Impressionists, possibly directly from the artist. It was included in several exhibitions in Paris and Amsterdam before being purchased by William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor (1907–1966), in the 1950s. When Viscount Astor, passed away, the painting was inherited by his wife Janet Bronwen, Viscountess Astor (1930–2017) and then accepted in lieu of Inheritance tax by HM Government and allocated to the National Gallery in 2020.

Late afternoon in our Meadow is one of a series of paintings featuring the meadow of a property in Eragny, where Pissarro settled in 1884 with his family. He lived there, in what was to be his last home, for almost twenty years. It provided an idyllic view of unspoilt countryside, which Pissarro painted repeatedly throughout the 1880s and 1890s, year after year, almost season by season. Pissarro’s working methods varied too - sometimes he painted the meadow high up from his studio window on medium-sized and large canvases, sometimes he painted it outdoors at ground level, often selecting small wooden panels rather than canvases.

Pissarro may well have begun painting Late afternoon in our Meadow en plein air and then completed it in the studio. The painting features a solitary figure, Pissarro’s wife, standing with a basket in one hand and her other hand on her hip. The meadow is planted with small trees; young saplings still surrounded by their protective cages. The sunlit foreground is separated from an area of much brighter green. A meandering stream divides the meadow from a line of densely planted trees of similar height on the horizon, punctured by a tall poplar to the left.

It is late afternoon and the long, thin shadows thrown by the trees radiate out in a fan shape towards the left corner. By 1887 Pissarro had fallen under the spell of the much younger painter Georges Seurat and adopted his innovation of painting in small dots of pure colour. The whole work is painted in separate touches of paint which create a decorative and textured surface; in the grass, an underlayer of greens and yellows is overlaid with pinks and yellows; in the areas of shadow, darker greens are overlaid with blues, mauves and the odd touch of orange. Following the colour theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood, complementary colours were juxtaposed: yellows and oranges added to sunlit areas, and blues and purples to shadows, creating a vibrant composition and reinforcing the pervading atmosphere of shimmering light.

Christopher Riopelle, the National Gallery’s Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings, says “The painting’s freshness and superb state of preservation allow us to see Pissarro at a crucial moment of his career, previously unrepresented at the National Gallery. He slows down his usual rapid, improvisatory technique to compose pointillist compositions that record the fluctuations of light and atmosphere with minute, exquisite precision.”

National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, says “Pissarro is represented in depth at the Gallery but Late Afternoon in our Meadow shows an aspect of his work until now absent and that is his temporary adoption in the 1880s of the ‘Divisionist’ technique pioneered by Seurat, of painting in very small strokes of pure colour to achieve richly luminous effects. This is a superb example and I am grateful to the Acceptance in Lieu Panel for shepherding the painting into the national collection at Trafalgar Square for everyone’s enjoyment.”

Edward Harley, OBE, Chairman, Acceptance in Lieu Panel, says “I am delighted to announce that a landscape by Camille Pissarro has been acquired through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and allocated to the National Gallery. Considered to be one of the highlights of his Neo-Impressionist phase, this is a wonderful work with distinguished provenance, and I hope that its example will encourage others to use the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme to bring great art into our public collections.

Pissarro was born on the island of St Thomas (then a Danish possession) in the Caribbean but was sent to school in France at the age of twelve. His importance resides in his contribution to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, having only Danish nationality and being unable to join the French army, he moved his family to Norwood, then a village on the edge of London.

Pissarro met the Paris art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, in London, who became the dealer who helped sell his art for most of his life. Durand-Ruel put him in touch with Monet who was also in London during this period. They both saw the work of British landscape artists John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner, which confirmed their belief that their style of open air painting gave the truest depiction of light and atmosphere, an effect that they felt could not be achieved in the studio alone. Pissarro's paintings also began to take on a more spontaneous look, with loosely blended brushstrokes and areas of impasto, giving more depth to the work.

Pissarro is the only artist to have shown his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886. He ‘acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists’ but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin.

In 1885 Pissarro met Georges Seurat, and for a time adopted his Divisionist technique of applying small dots of colour alongside each other on the canvas to create an optical mixture. Pissarro, along with Seurat and Paul Signac, exhibited such works at the 8th and last Impressionist exhibition in 1886, prompting the critic Félix Fénéon to invent the term Neo-Impressionism. However, a few years later, Pissarro gradually abandoned the technique, finding the painstaking application of paint an obstacle to a spontaneous and swift rendering of a scene.

Pissarro died in Paris on 13 November 1903 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

An unique pair of diamond, fancy black and fancy white diamond pendent earrings

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Lot 1754. An unique pair of diamond, fancy black and fancy white diamond pendent earrings, 12.72 and 12.46 carats. Estimate: 15,500,000 - 18,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 18,175,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

Each suspending a pear brilliant-cut diamond weighing 12.72 and 12.46 carats, to the square emerald-cut and cushion-shaped fancy black and fancy white diamond surmount weighing 5.11 and 4.25 carats, decorated with marquise-shaped diamonds weighing 1.11 and 1.07 carats respectively, embellished with circular-cut black diamonds and brilliant-cut diamonds, post and butterfly fittings.

Accompanied by two GIA reports no. 2175881657 and 6177857071, dated 13 November 2018 and 9 October 2018 respectively, stating that the 12.72 and 12.46 carat diamonds are both D Colour, Flawless, Excellent Polish and Symmetry; further accompanied by two diamond type classification letters each stating that the diamond is determined to be a Type IIa diamond. Type IIa diamonds are the most chemically pure type of diamond and often have exceptional optical transparency.

Accompanied by GIA report no. 2175392969, dated 14 January 2020, stating that the 5.11 carat diamond is Fancy Black, Natural Colour.

Accompanied by GIA report no. 2175493067, dated 2 January 2020, stating that the 4.25 carat diamond is Fancy White, Natural Colour.

Accompanied by two GIA reports no. 2198598876 and 1155614856, dated 18 March 2015 and 1 August 2013, stating that the 1.11 and 1.07 carat diamonds are both F Colour, Internally Flawless and VS1 Clarity, Excellent Polish and Symmetry respectively.

Please note that the circular-cut black diamonds have not been tested for natural colour origin.

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels, Hong Kong, 10 July 2020

An impressive jadeite bangle

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Lot 1672. An impressive jadeite bangle. Estimate: 13,000,000 - 18,000,000 HKD HKD. Lot sold 15,775,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

The cylindrical jadeite bangle of very good translucency and even emerald green colour, suffused with intense emerald green streaks.

Inner diameter and thickness approximately 56.91 x 11.55mm.

Accompanied by Hong Kong Jade and Stone Laboratory certificate no. KJ 101583, dated 20 February 2020, stating that the jadeite is natural, known in the trade as "A Jade". 

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels, Hong Kong, 10 July 2020

An exceptional Longquan celadon conical bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)

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An exceptional Longquan celadon conical bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)

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Lot 101. An exceptional Longquan celadon conical bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 14.5 cm, 5 5/8  inEstimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKDLot sold 1,187,500 HKD Courtesy Sotheby's.

delicately potted with flaring sides supported on a short foot, evenly covered overall save for the footring with a soft bluish-green glaze gently pooling around the rim and the central circular groove on the interior, the edges of the glaze along the pale grey unglazed footring burnt brownish-orange.

ProvenanceCollection of Herschel V. Johnson (1894-1966).
Sotheby's London, 21st February 1967, lot 21.
Collection of Col. and Mrs R.J.H. Carson.
Sotheby's London, 7th June 1994, lot 308.
Collection of Robert Barron.
Christie's New York, 30th March 2005, lot 317.

ExhibitedHeaven and Earth Seen Within: Song Ceramics from the Robert Barron Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, 2000, cat. no. 56.

Note: Lonquan bowls of this pronounced shape are preserved in important museums and collections around the world, including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty II, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 152, no. 137; and another in the Percival David collection, illustrated in the Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, rev. ed. 1997, p. 29, no. 231. See also one sold in our New York rooms, 16th/17th September 2014, lot 112.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A rare yellow jade zhulong ('pig dragon'), Neolithic Period, Hongshan Culture

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A rare yellow jade zhulong ('pig dragon'), Neolithic Period, Hongshan Culture

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Lot 102. A rare yellow jade zhulong ('pig dragon'), Neolithic Period, Hongshan Culture (c. 3800-2700 BC); 7.2 cm, 2 3/4  inEstimate 2,000,000 — 3,000,000 HKDLot sold 5,575,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

the beast with an iconic coiled body, depicted with large bulging eyes, a wrinkled snout and slightly protruding ears, the signature slit below the sealed lips terminated before meeting the central perforation, its neck drilled for suspension, the lustrous stone of a warm yellowish-celadon colour with an attractive patina.

ProvenanceAcquired in the 1970s.

NoteThis superbly carved ritual ornament, skillfully worked and polished from jade of a lustrous and rich yellowish colour, is a legacy of the enigmatic Hongshan culture in the Neolithic period, at the dawn of Chinese civilisation. Zhulong, translated as ‘pig dragons’, have been considered as the prototype for the ornamentation of mythical dragons in later Chinese symbolic art. Modelled with a long upturned snout, prominent ears and bulging eyes, the modern term zhulong is used to describe zoomorphic slit discs with coiled bodies and pig-like snouts.

Recovered at various tomb sites in Northeast China, they are considered by archaeologists to have been used as chest ornaments. For a discussion on zhulong see Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, ‘Jades of the Hongshan Culture’, Arts Asiatiques, vol. XLVI, December 1991, pp. 82-95, where she identifies the territory of Liaoxi and Liaodong peninsulas and the upper and lower valleys of the Liao river as the areas where Hongshan remains originated from. She classifies zhulong as ranging from 4 to 15 cm high, sharing a central design, consisting of a C-shaped body worked all over, with U shaped ears in profile around large prominent eyes above a set of tusks, and emphasises that the eyes are always omnipresent.

A small number of Hongshan jade zhulong has been published, including one in the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji [The complete collection of Chinese jade], vol. 1, Fuzhou, 1993, pl. 30, together with one in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, pl. 27; another unearthed at Ganfanyingzi, Aohanqi, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, illustrated in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China, Beijing, 2005, vol. 2, pl. 24, and a third, fashioned in the round, in the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in Tianjin shi yishu bowuguan cang yu [Jades in the Tianjin City Museum], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 22. A fragment of a jade pig dragon of similar form to the current example, bequeathed to the British Museum by Brenda Zara Seligman in 1973, is illustrated in Jessica Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, fig. 22.

Other published jade zhulong include one in the collection of Simon Kwan, included in the exhibition Exquisite Jade Carving, University Museum and Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 45; and one from the collections of A.W. Bahr and Arthur M. Sackler, sold at Christie’s New York, 1st December 1994, lot 73. See also another Hongshan jade ‘pig dragon’ from the Peony collection, of a celadon-green colour and with more pronounced ears, illustrated in Angus Forsyth and Brian McElney, Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1994, cat. no. 8, and sold in these rooms, 28th/29th November 2019, lot 728. Compare also two other examples sold recently, a much larger (13 cm) example from the Florence and Herbert Irving collection, sold (undated) at Christie’s New York, 21st March 2019, lot 1180, and another example from the Chang Wei-Hwa collection, illustrated in Jades of Hongshan Culture, 2007, Taipei, cat. no. 15, and sold at Christie’s New York, 27th November 2019, lot 2706.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A rare huanghuali ebony-inset painting table, huazhuo, Qing dynasty, 18th century

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Lot 103. A rare huanghuali ebony-inset painting table, huazhuo, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 87 by 193.1 by 72.7 cm, 34 1/4  by 76 by 28 5/8  inEstimate 1,500,000 — 2,500,000 HKDLot sold 7,975,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

the framed top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon construction, supported on beaded square-section legs terminating in hoof feet, the legs joined by four stretchers skilfully set with ebony struts of varying lengths neatly forming latticed aprons on all four sides.

Provenance: Acquired in the 1970s.

NoteThe ingenious design and the superior quality of this table suggests an imperial connection. It is striking for its clean and sober lines which are enlivened by the ebony lattice apron, whose lustrous dark tone also creates an attractive contrast to the honey-toned huanghuali. In its combination of the deceptively simple four-sided-flushed construction (simianping) and sophisticated latticework, this table exemplifies the Qing carpenters’ efforts to create furniture that echoed and enhanced elements of traditional Chinese architecture. The result is a table that is both functional and decorative, and one that celebrates the natural beauty of the two woods.

Likely used as a painting table in a scholar’s studio, its generous length and depth would have provided ample surface for free, unimpeded movement. The painting table or desk was the most important piece of furniture in the scholar’s studio and placed in a central position in the room ‘with one end against a window where abundant natural light made writing, painting or reading a more pleasant exercise. In this position, the opposite side could also be used by an assistant to hold the sheet of paper or for some other purpose’ (see Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. 1, p. 68). Such tables are often depicted in contemporary paintings and woodblock illustrations, as in Shengyu xiang jie [The sacred edict, illustrated and explained] published in the early Qing dynasty (fig. 1) or in two anonymous hanging scrolls depicting the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-1735) in his studio, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Paintings by the Court Artisans of the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 1996, pls 12.1 and 12.5.

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Shengyu xiang jie [The sacred edict, illustrated and explained], Kangxi period, version, vol. 5, p. 5.

Rectangular waistless tables of these broad proportions are unusual and those with aprons carved from ebony are very rare. While no other closely related example appears to have been published, tables of simianping design with stretchers between the legs include a table with corner spandrels illustrated in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture. Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1996, pl. 67, together with a smaller example, pl. 78; another from the collection of Marie Theresa L. Virata, sold at Christie’s New York, 16th March 2017, lot 624; and a zitan table with aprons in the form of angular scrolls, published in Hu Desheng, A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, Beijing, 2007, vol. I, pl. 209, together with two further zitan examples with floral carvings between the humpback stretchers and top, pls 253 and 257. See also a line drawing of a table of this type illustrated in Wang Shixiang, op.cit., vol. II, pl. B80. 

The simianping construction, whereby the legs are set flush against the table top, allowed carpenters to create particularly elegant designs that considered some of the most attractive in Chinese furniture. This design is believed to derive from box-like platforms, and most likely emerged in the Song dynasty (960-1279).

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020


A finely carved white marble standing figure of a monk, probably Ananda, Tang dynasty (618-907)

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Lot 104. A finely carved white marble standing figure of a monk, probably Ananda, Tang dynasty (618-907); 54 cm, 21 1/4  inEstimate 900,000 — 1,200,000 HKDLot sold 1,500,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

sensuously carved standing on a facetted lotus pedestal with the feet pointing outwards, the hands depicted gently clasped before the subtly rounded waist with one hand over the other, superbly portrayed dressed in loose voluminous robes opening at the chest, draped over the left arm and softly cascading in pleated folds around the partially exposed feet, traces of gilding and pigment.

Provenance: Collection of Osvald Sirén (1879-1966), Stockholm, by repute.
S.H. Hoo, New York, 1963.
Collection of Fong Chow (1923-2012), curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Christie's New York, 24th March 2011, lot 1303.
Eskenazi, London.

Exhibited: Chinese Sculpture c. 500-1500, Eskenazi, London, 2014, cat. no. 13. 

Note: This sensuously carved marble torso, which appears to represent the young monk Ananda, is a legacy of the high period of the Tang dynasty, when China’s sculptural tradition reached its most mature phase. The modelling of the youthful male is articulated with vivid realism, the dignified standing figure endowed with the uttermost spirituality.

In contrast to the more sinicised treatment of the human form in the Northern Qi and Sui dynasties, carving of the Tang dynasty exhibits a deep level of influence from the artistic style of the Indian Gupta Empire, embued with resonances of the Hellenistic tradition.

Images of monks first appeared in Buddhist art in sculptures created in Gandhara from the 2nd to 3rd century, represented as subsidiary figures on the bases of statues of Buddha. By the 6th century, Chinese Buddhist sculptures depicted pairs of monks as part of larger assemblages that included a Buddha. One of the monks is traditionally depicted as youthful and the other elderly, and they are understood to be representations of Ananda and Kashyapa flanking images of the Buddha. The figure would originally have been part of a large group centred on a Buddha surrounded by bodhisattvas and guardians, or on a triad such as one at Foguang Si in Shanxi, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Diaosu bian [The complete series on Chinese art. Sculpture], vol. 4, Beijing, 1988, pl. 48.

Similar iconography to the current figure can be seen on a Tang dynasty limestone sculpture, also identified as Ananda, donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by A.W. Bahr in 1952. It is published in Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, cat. no. 18, where the authors argue that the style of clothing on the monk date it to the 8th century. The naturalistic treatment of the robes on the Metropolitan figure is extremely close to that on the current sculpture. The iconography of the hands of the Metropolitan Museum example is also very close, similarly depicted clasped flat to his stomach, left over right with interlocking thumbs, differing only in that the figure is depicted holding an obscure object, possibly a lotus bud or an offering wrapped in a red cloth.

For another Tang stone monk of larger size, see one in the Beilin Museum, illustrated in Shaanxi Provincial Museum, ed., Shaanxi sheng bowuguan cang shike xuanji [Selected sculptures from the Shaanxi Provincial Museum], Beijing, 1957, p. 52, no. 49; and two other examples illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. II, Bangkok, 1998 ed., pls 371B and 374. A similar figure, dated to the Sui dynasty, from the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art, is illustrated in Hai-wai yi-chen / Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: Buddhist Sculpture II, Taipei, 1990, pl. 95.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

An exceptional and large Longquan celadon vase, meiping, Early Ming dynasty

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An exceptional and large Longquan celadon vase, meiping, Early Ming dynasty

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Lot 105. An exceptional and large Longquan celadon vase, meiping, Early Ming dynasty; 38.8 cm, 15 1/4  inEstimate 4,000,000 — 6,000,000 HKDLot sold 7,375,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

superbly potted with broad rounded shoulders elegantly rising at a flared angle from the slightly splayed base and sweeping to a tapered neck and a lipped mouth, the voluptuous body thickly applied overall with an unctuous sea-green glaze save for the unglazed footring burnt brownish-orange during the firing, Japanese wood box.

Note: Deceptively simple in form and design, yet with its dynamic silhouette and near-flawless glaze, this vase ranks amongst the finest examples of Longquan celadon wares, making it eligible for the imperial Ming court. It embodies the technical perfection achieved by the Longquan craftsmen as such undecorated vessels required the highest level of skill and precision in every stage of their production. Markedly top-heavy with a relatively narrow-waisted foot, this vase is a result of careful calculation: the exact proportions and firing temperature had to be achieved in order to prevent sagging or collapsing. The slightest irregularity in the clay, potting, glaze or firing would result in the destruction of the piece.

A slightly taller Longquan meiping from the Qing court collection, is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, together with its original cover; see Longquan of the World: Longquan Celadon and Globalization, vol. II: State Vessels, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 94. The author suggests that judging from its elegant shape, the Beijing example was probably made according to the authorised design for the Yongle court (p. 156). Four similar vases in the National Palace Museum, Taipei are included in the Museum’s exhibition Green. Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2009, cat. nos 64-67. Another example of this form and size in the Tokyo National Museum, formerly in the Yokogawa collection, is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 486. Two further vases were sold in our London rooms, one 20th May 1986, lot 2, the other, 10th November 2004, lot 561. Kiln wasters of many related vases and matching covers have been excavated from the imperial Longquan kilns at Chuzhou, Zhejiang province; see Ye Yingting and Hua Yunong, Faxian: Da Ming Chuzhou Longquan quanyao [Discover: Imperial ware of the great Ming dynasty from Longquan in Chuzhou], Hangzhou, 2005, pp. 38-101.

The form of this vase is an exaggerated version of the characteristic meiping of the Longquan kilns of the early Ming period and appears to derive from similar large blue and white prototypes from the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen; compare six meiping, decorated with various banded designs, excavated from the Yuan dynasty hoard at Gao’an country, illustrated in The Porcelain from the Cellar of the Yuan Dynasty in Gao’an, Shanghai, 2005, pp. 52-63. Longquan vases of this type were also decorated with scenes closely related to motifs developed at the Jingdezhen kilns; for example see a covered meiping carved with bamboo and prunus, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Longquan of the World, op.cit., cat. no. 95. Such similarities support the notion that the court in Beijing commissioned and sent designs to Longquan kilns to be recreated for imperial use. Official documents record that the Longquan kilns were producing wares for the court until at least the Chenghua reign.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A large archaic jade ceremonial blade, ge, Shang – Zhou dynasty

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Lot 106. A large archaic jade ceremonial blade, ge, Shang – Zhou dynasty; 43.4 cm, 17 inEstimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKDLot sold 750,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

impressively worked with sides outlined with bevelled edges, crisply and gently curving to a tapered point, the long blade further marked with a well-defined medial ridge, the tang worked with pairs of squared teeth along the edge with associated shallow grooves on both sides, echoed on the lower end of the bevelled edges of the blade, the tang further pierced with an aperture for hafting, the stone of opaque olive-brown colour with white and russet mottling.

ProvenanceAcquired in the 1970s.

NoteFollowing the invention of bronze, weapons such as blades and daggers were added to the repertoire of pieces made in more refined materials such as jade for ceremonial use. The significance of these ceremonial blades in Shang dynasty society is illustrated by the sheer quantity and quality discovered in the tomb of Fu Hao (d. c.1200 BC), a consort of King Wu Ding (r. 1324-1266 BC). Fu Hao's tomb near the Shang dynasty capital Anyang in Henan province provides a glimpse into the variety in size, detail, design and excellence in craftsmanship that existed in her time, see Yinxu Fu Hao mu Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls 107-113 and Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade. From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp. 40-41.

Jade ge of related form, also featuring the ribs at the nei, include a longer example, excavated from Tomb No. 63 in the Necropolis of the Marquis of State Jin, Quwo, Shanxi Province, held in the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 3, Shanxi, Beijing, 2005, p. 111, together with a shorter version attributed to the Early Spring and Autumn period, excavated from Tomb No. 55 at the burial site of Shangguo, Wenxi, Shanxi province, in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, p. 164.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A pair of huanghuali continuous horseshoe-back armchairs, quanyi, Late Ming dynasty

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Lot 107. A pair of huanghuali continuous horseshoe-back armchairs, quanyi, Late Ming dynasty; 105 by 73 by 66 cm, 41 1/4  by 28 3/4  by 26 inEstimate 1,000,000 — 2,000,000 HKDLot sold 6,895,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

each well proportioned, the arm beginning and ending in returning knobs, the 'S'-curved back splat carved with a ruyi-shaped medallion enclosing a pair of stylised chilong and tongue-and-grooved into the underside of the horseshoe arm and the back member of the seat frame, the stiles and posts tennoned into the horseshoe-shaped arm and passing through the seat frame to become the legs, a pair of small shaped spandrels tongue-and-grooved into the posts and underside of the arm, the seat frame of mitre, mortise and tenon construction, gently curving and ending in a narrow flat band, the shaped beaded-edged front apron decorated with scrollwork and framed by the seat frame, legs and footrest, the side aprons similarly shaped, the back apron similarly cusped but undecorated, the legs joined in front by a shaped footrest and on the sides and back by square stretchers with rounded outer edges, the footrest and side stretchers with plain aprons below.

Provenance: Peter Lai Antiques, Hong Kong, 11th January 1995.

Note: Elegantly constructed with a wide back splat and precisely carved with confronting chilong enclosed in a ruyi-shaped medallion, these chairs owe their aesthetic appeal to the fluid movement created by their continuous crest rail, which provides a sense of containment and ease to their occupants. Comfortable, sturdy and lightweight, horseshoe-back chairs were highly popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and were frequently depicted in contemporary woodblock illustrated books, where they are shown used in both formal and informal occasions and by both male and female family members. 

Known as quanyi ('circular chair') or yuanyi ('round chair'), horseshoe-back chairs derive from chairs made of pliable lengths of bamboo, bent into a 'U'-shape and bound together using natural fibres. These chairs display the ingenuity of Ming dynasty cabinet makers, who were able to create a hardwood version by developing complicated joinery techniques. In order to create the continuous back, members were fitted together with a cut-out to accommodate a tapered wood pin that would lock them firmly in place when inserted. The complexity of the design required exacting craftsmanship as a slight error in the tilt of any of the joins would be magnified by the adjoining members. Once the lacquered coat was applied to the surface crest rail, the underlying joinery was not visible and virtually impossible to wrest apart.

Horseshoe-back armchairs carved with this geometric design on the apron are unusual; a pair in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 12; another pair was sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 1995, lot 431; and a single chair from the collection of John and Celeste Fleming, illustrated in Grace Wu, Ming Furniture, Hong Kong 1995, pl. 17, was sold at Bonhams New York, 12th September 2016, lot 6005.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A fine Langyao red-glazed vase, guanyin zun, Kangxi period (1662-1722)

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Lot 2832. A fine Langyao red-glazed vase, guanyinzun, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 17.¼ in. (43.9 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - HKD 2,500,000Price realised HKD 1,500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The vase is of elongated baluster form rising from a spreading foot to a short waisted neck and slightly flared mouth, covered on the exterior with a crackled glaze of strawberry-red thinning gently to a paler tone at the rim, the interior and base with a crackled cream glaze,box.

Note: Compare to a very similar Langyao vase but of slightly larger size (44.7 cm.) in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelains of the Ching Dynasty, Taipei, 1981, front cover and no. 1.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020

A fine and very rare iron-red 'Phoenix' waterpot, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period (1723-1735)

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Lot 2836. A fine and very rare iron-red 'Phoenix' waterpot, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735); 2.¼ in. (5.7 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - HKD 2,500,000Price realised HKD 1,500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The delicate water pot is finely decorated on the exterior in iron red with two highly stylised archaistic phoenix with trailing tail feathers between stylised fretwork bands encircling the neck and above the foot, box.

ProvenanceSold at Sotheby’s London, 16 June 1998, lot 260 (one of a pair)
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 15 May 2013, lot 171.

NoteThe pair to the present water pot, which was originally sold together at Sotheby’s London, 16 June 1998, lot 260, was sold again at Sotheby’s London, 6 November 2013, lot 157. A Yongzheng water pot with the same decoration is in the Palace Museum Collection (museum no. Gu00150292), is recorded on the museum website digital archive (fig. 1).

Another similar iron-red decorated water pot, also with a Yongzheng mark and of the period, previously in the E. T. Chow Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 127. Another pair of the same pattern, with Yongzheng marks and of the period, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31 October 1974, lot 291.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020

A fine large robin's-egg enamelled lantern-form vase, Qing dynasty, 18th century

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Lot 2840. A fine large robin's-egg enamelled lantern-form vase, Qing dynasty, 18th century15 in. (38.1 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000Price realised HKD 375,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The ovoid vase is potted with a slightly waisted neck standing on a short ring foot, covered overall with a rich mottled enamel of blue and turquoise tones, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s London, 16 June 1998, lot 260 (one of a pair)
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 15 May 2013, lot 171.

Note: The pair to the present water pot, which was originally sold together at Sotheby’s London, 16 June 1998, lot 260, was sold again at Sotheby’s London, 6 November 2013, lot 157. A Yongzheng water pot with the same decoration is in the Palace Museum Collection (museum no. Gu00150292), is recorded on the museum website digital archive (fig. 1).

Another similar iron-red decorated water pot, also with a Yongzheng mark and of the period, previously in the E. T. Chow Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 127. Another pair of the same pattern, with Yongzheng marks and of the period, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31 October 1974, lot 291.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020


A large blue and white ‘Squirrel and Grapes’ bowl, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1

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Lot 2841. A large blue and white ‘Squirrel and Grapes’ bowl, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795); 15 in. (38.1 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000Price realised HKD 375,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The exterior of the bowl is delicately painted in various vibrant shades of cobalt blue with a continuous scene of squirrels clambering on leafy fruiting grapevines, all framed within a double line encircling the mouth and foot, Japanese wood box inscribed by the scholar Kushi Takushin (1898-1974).

ProvenanceA Japanese private collection.

NoteCompare to several Qianlong-marked bowls with this decoration, including one sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 June 2014, lot 3234; one sold at Christie’s Paris, 20 June 2017, lot 216; one included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ching Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, no. 10; and a pair in The Chinese University of Hong Kong Museum illustrated in their 1995 exhibition Catalogue, Qing Imperial Porcelain from the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, no. 76.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020

A Ming-style blue and white ‘Floral scroll’ dish, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period (1723-1735)

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Lot 2842. A Ming-style blue and white ‘Floral scroll’ dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735)10.½ in. (26.7 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000Price realised HKD 600,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The dish is finely painted on the interior with composite floral blooms borne on meandering stems in the centre, enclosed within a band of composite floral scroll on the well underneath a classic scroll around the mouth. The exterior is similarly decorated with a composite floral scroll below a keyfret chain around the mouth and above a classic scroll on the foot, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 3130.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 9 July 2020

Christie's reveal top lot in their Classic Week Evening sale

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Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a young woman, half-length, holding a chain, oil on canvas, 33¾ x 26 in. (85.5 x 66 cm.) Estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000.© Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

LONDON.- Christie’s London announced a new, expanded, hybrid Classic Week, a marquee series of 12 auctions to take place throughout the month of July 2020. Comprising eight on line sales, including a creative collaboration between Old Masters and Post War Art, Classic Week will also feature four live auctions culminating with an innovative new Classic Art Evening Sale: Antiquity to 20th Century on 29 July.

The expanded Classic Week will celebrate craftsmanship and the story of creativity across time from antiquity to the 21st century, and across artistic media including Old Master and 19th Century Paintings, Drawings and Prints; Sculpture and Antiquities; Books and Manuscripts; and the full diversity of Decorative Arts.

Karl Hermanns, Global Managing Director, Classic Art Group comments, “Christie’s Classic Art business has seen great success in the new environment of the last two months, with live auctions converted to on-line only sales, creative new on-line theme sales, and last week in Paris we held the first live auctions by an international auction house since lockdown. Our on-line only New York Classic Week is live for bidding now. We are excited to announce London’s July marquee Classic Week in this new, expanded, hybrid format and featuring two innovative new sale concepts: a creative on-line collaboration between Old Masters and Post War Art and a new cross-category Classic Art Evening Sale: Antiquity to 20th Century”.

As one of the most exciting recent rediscoveries in Rubens’ portrait oeuvre, this powerful and enigmatic portrait was painted in the early part of what has come to be known as his Italian period, either in Italy or during his first trip to Spain, between circa 1603 and 1606.

The ruff worn by the young female sitter is Spanish in origin, alluding to a link with the artist’s time in Spain in 1603. While in the service of his patron - Vincenzo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua - Rubens journeyed to Spain and correspondence suggests that he had been commissioned by the Duke to produce portraits of the ladies of the Spanish Court for his ‘Gallery of Beauties’ in Mantua. While it is not clear if Rubens fulfilled this commission or if this portrait was one of those commissioned paintings, it is certainly a possibility. What is evident is that this painting demonstrates the brilliant brushwork and physiological understanding of the artist, who was to become the most influential artist of the Baroque period.

The portrait is likely to have remained in Italy until the early 19th century, latterly in Venice. It then entered the collection of the Hanmer family in Britain during the mid-19th century, probably being acquired by Sir John Hanmer for his family seat at Bettisfield Park in Flintshire, North Wales.

 

A jade 'tiger' ornament, heng, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-221 BC)

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A jade 'tiger' ornament, heng, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-221 BC)

Lot 109. A jade 'tiger' ornament, heng, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-221 BC); 13 cm, 5 1/8  inEstimate 150,000 — 200,000 HKDLot sold 212,500 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

of flat arc form with each end worked to depict a tiger head, each flat side of the ornament well worked in low relief with scrolling motifs, pierced through at the centre for suspension, the stone of a warm yellowish-beige colour with russet patches.

Provenance: Acquired in the 1970s.

Note: Related carvings include one excavated from Fenghiangshan, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, and held in Jingzhou Museum, published in Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 10: Hubei, Hunan, Beijing, 2005, p. 132; one of more arched form, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cangpin daxi: yuqi bian [Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade], vol. 3: Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, Beijing, 2011, pl. 136; and another, excavated from the burial site at Yanggong, Changfeng, Anhui Province, in the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, included in Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 6: Anhui, Beijing, 2005, p. 91.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

A superbly carved cinnabar lacquer 'pomegranate' box and cover, Mark and period of Yongle(1403-1425)

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Lot 110. A superbly carved cinnabar lacquer 'pomegranate' box and cover, Mark and period of Yongle(1403-1425); 31.5 cm, 12 3/8  inEstimate 16,000,000 — 18,000,000 HKDLot sold 15,055,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

of circular form, the cover masterfully carved in deep relief through the thick layers of red lacquer to the ochre-yellow ground with a large blooming pomegranate flower in the centre surrounded by further blossoms and buds in various stages of maturity amidst dense leaves, the sides of the cover and box each decorated with a meandering scroll of composite flowers consisting of camellias, roses, chrysanthemums, peonies and lotus blooms, the interior and base lacquered dark brown, the inner left side of the footrim incised with a six-character reign mark, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A European private collection.
Christie’s London, 5th June 1995, lot 16, illustrated on the catalogue cover.
Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, New York, 2008.

Red Pomegranate Blossoms to Ward off Evil
Regina Krahl

A lacquer box of this striking beauty, dazzling perfection and massive size does not need any words to commend it. It would have been an object of awe and admiration even in the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when imperial patronage had spurred on China’s artisans to peak performance. As the country’s best workshops in a range of media were recruited to produce wares for the imperial house, the bold, exuberant, but often somewhat harsh style of decoration of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) – noticeable not only in carved lacquer ware but equally in other media, such as blue-and-white porcelain, gilt-bronze sculptures, or decorated silks – gave way to unprecedented elegance and refinement. As all rough edges were polished off, both literally and metaphorically, and compositions methodically fine-tuned, lacquer wares of the Yongle period (1403-1424) set a standard in this medium that was never again equalled, let alone surpassed, in later reigns. A by-product of this search for the ultimate was the rejection of all black lacquer in favour of the more appealing bright cinnabar red.

Unlike porcelain, carved lacquer ware with its extremely labour-intensive production process, did not lend itself to series production. Lacquer decoration therefore tends to be quite varied. Yet, like the imperial porcelain painters at Jingdezhen, imperial lacquer craftsmen appear in the Yongle reign to have been given pre-designed patterns to work from. It is most interesting to compare a lacquer dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, from the Qing court collection, one of the extremely rare pieces also carved with branches of flowering pomegranate, to this box (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 28; and Gugong jingdian. Ming Yongle Xuande wenwu tudian/Classics of the Forbidden City. Splendours from the Yongle and Xuande Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2012, pl. 65) (fig. 1). While the representation of the flowers is quite different in style and strongly suggests the hand of a different master carver, the layout of the blooms, buds and leaves is identical to that on the top of our box, and the sizes of the two pieces are similar. We may therefore assume that different lacquer craftsmen worked in the imperial workshops to given models, but were able to interpret them in their own individual manner. On the Palace Museum dish, like on the present box, the needle-engraved Yongle reign mark has not been obliterated by a superimposed Xuande mark (1426-1435), as is often the case with Yongle lacquer wares. 

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fig. 1 A carved cinnabar lacquer ‘pomegranate’ charger, mark and period of Yongle © Palace Museum, Beijing.

Hardly any plant is as well suited to be represented in cinnabar lacquer as the vivid red-flowering pomegranate, that here is most effectively set off against the contrasting ochre-yellow ground. Yet, while pomegranate blossoms are often included in seasonal flower groups, we rarely see them on early Ming carved lacquer wares as a main design. The lush blooms with delicate, frilly petals are most distinctive due to their spiky calyx, which later turns into the crown that also identifies the fruit. While the fruit that tends to burst open, revealing its densely packed seeds, is a popular theme for works of art as an auspicious fruit symbolising many children, the blossoms’ “fiery red color was believed to ward off evil” according to Terese Tse Bartholomew (Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 76).

Boxes are perhaps the best format to showcase the quality of the carving work. The flat circular top is unforgiving in show-casing the complex layout of this horror-vacui design of prolific blossoms cushioned among greenery. It reveals how clearly the network of stems has been structured, how well the criss-crossing layers of leaves with their differently veined upper- and undersides have been balanced across the circular space, and how rhythmically the blossoms, in their different stages of maturity, from fluffy, fully opened blooms to tiny closed buds, have been embedded amongst all this.

The larger the space, naturally, the more difficult was the planning of the design: while small boxes often feature only a single bloom surrounded by leaves, larger pieces demanded more and more intricate compositions of three, five or more flowers. The present design represents one of the most complex floral designs recorded: while on larger boxes and dishes, flower patterns often are somewhat rigidly composed, with a single bloom surrounded by four others, spaced out at regular intervals, with buds in between, on this box we see a more irregularly interwoven composition of flowers of various aspects, naturalistically grouped around a prime specimen in the centre, as if arranged in a bouquet.

The present box is one of the largest Yongle carved lacquer boxes preserved. A Yongle-marked box of similar size and design, but carved with peonies was included in the exhibition Chōshitsu/Carved Lacquer, The Tokugawa Art Museum and Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Nagoya and Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 88, where it is stated that the red lacquer above the black guideline consists of fifteen layers; another Yongle-marked box of similar size, similarly densely carved but with only three main blooms, perhaps roses, on the cover, from the collection of the Nanzen-ji, Kyoto, was included in the exhibition Tōyō no shikkōgei/Oriental Lacquer Arts, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 504, together with three of the more typical flower-decorated boxes of smaller size, two with Yongle reign marks from the Nezu Art Museum, Tokyo, and one with Yongle and Xuande marks, from the Fujita Art Museum, Osaka, cat. nos 505-507.

Two further boxes of similar size are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, from the Qing court collection, one decorated with a landscape, the other with Buddhist motifs, both illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasuresop.cit., pls 44 and 45, together with smaller flower-decorated examples with and without reign marks, pls 29, 30, 63, 71, 73. No other box of comparable size appears to have been offered at auction, but a smaller box (26.5 cm) from the Le Cong Tang collection, also of Yongle mark and period, but carved on top with peonies, previously sold in these rooms 7th May 2002, lot 623, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th November 2017, lot 8009.

Only few larger boxes are recorded, among them a piece carved with phoenixes among composite flowers on a diaper ground, presented by Sir Percival David to H.M. The King of Sweden upon the King’s 80th birthday (John Figgess, ‘Ming and Pre-Ming Lacquer in the Japanese Tea Ceremony’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 37, 1967-69, pl. 52). This box has later, however, been attributed to the Hongwu reign (1368-1398) by Lee King-tsi and Hu Shih-chang.

Lee and Hu, both noted lacquer scholars and collectors, made a strong case for the production of this superlative carved lacquer to have begun in the Hongwu rather than the Yongle period. (‘Carved Lacquer of the Hongwu Period’ and ‘Further Observations on Carved Lacquer of the Hongwu Period’, Oriental Art, vol. XLVII, no. 1, 2001, pp. 10-20, and vol. LV, no. 3, 2005-6, pp. 41-47, both reprinted in Layered Beauty. The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, pp. 171-190). Although a Yongle carved lacquer style seemed firmly identified through pieces with reign marks, they undertook ground-breaking research on the identity of Hongwu lacquer ware. An important Ming document that records gifts from the court of the Yongle Emperor to the Ashikaga Shogun of Japan, shows that between 1403 and 1407 the Chinese court sent 203 pieces of carved red lacquer to the Japanese ruler, with the most important gift of fifty-eight pieces occurring in the first year of the Yongle reign. Since the carving of lacquer wares is a laborious, time-consuming process that can stretch over years, they argued that the gifts of this first year, 1403, could not have been completed within a matter of months and can therefore only be of Hongwu date.

Since many pieces in this list are clearly described, Lee and Hu tried to identify distinguishing features for Hongwu and Yongle wares and proposed that on Yongle flower-decorated pieces the main decoration consists of only a single species of flower, while Hongwu pieces typically show flowers of the Four Seasons, and that the Yongle mark, when later inscribed onto Hongwu pieces, appears there on the right-hand side, rather than on the left, as on the present piece. With this proposition, and with no Xuande inscription covering the delicate Yongle reign mark on its base, the dating of this remarkable box is not open to discussion.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, Hong Kong, 11 July 2020

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