A rare five-color-overlay pink glass snuff bottle, Imperial, Palace Workshops, Beijing, 1750-1850. Estimate $18,000 – $22,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The bottle is carved through the opaque dark green, pale blue, yellow, red and pink overlay to the translucent pink glass ground with a design of a woven basket overflowing with blossoms and fruit including two finger citrons, begonias, sweet peas and a large peony. 2 7/8 in. (6 cm.) high, rose quartz stopper

Provenance: Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2001
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3167.

Exhibited: Corning, New York, Corning Museum of Glass, 2007-2008.
Boston, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, The Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.

Notes: There is a whole series of objects decorated with baskets of flowers or fruit decorations which can be associated with the eighteenth-century Qing Court. The design is found on Imperial porcelain dishes enameled at Jingdezhen and at the Court from the Yongzheng period and on a range of snuff bottles attributable to the Palace workshops. Three examples of these imperial examples were in the Bloch Collection. Two are of painted enamels on metal from the first half of the Qianlong period (see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong, 2008, Volume 6, Part I, p. 162, no. 1079 and p. 163, no. 1080), while the third is of the Guyue Xuan glass group, an Imperial group of the late Qianlong period certainly associated with, if not made at the Court (ibid., p. 227, no. 1005). The design also started to appear on glass overlay bottles. For an early example of an early single-color overlay, probably Palace Workshops, where the fruits are contained in a bowl rather than a basket see Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J Collection, New York, 1993, Volume II, p. 603, no. 362. 

The pink ground color of the present example is extremely rare. The overall design is related to a pink and green overlay bottle formerly in the J Collection, which is designed with a similar green basket but with smaller pink begonia blossoms on a white ground (see ibid., p. 642, no. 393). It is interesting to compare the bases of these two bottles as they exhibit two independent design choices. On the present bottle, the basket motif does not continue on the base, presumably as a result of looking at painted-enamel versions which left the base plain for inclusion of a mark. On the J bottle the design of the basket continues on the base and imitates the base of a basket. 

The popularity of baskets in general at the Court may arise from the probable symbolism of the basket (lanzi) which may suggest male children (nanzi), one of the three desires dear to the Chinese heart which are embodied in the termsanduo ('three plenties'). These are, duofu ('plenty of happiness'), duoshou ('plenty of years to live') and duonanzi('plenty of male children'). 

Christie's. THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART I, 16 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

A white and blue-overlay white glass snuff bottle, possibly Imperial, Palace Workshops, Beijing, 1760-1790. Estimate $15,000 – $20,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The translucent white and transparent sapphire-blue glass overlays are carved through to the translucent white body with a continuous scene of a scholar riding a donkey across a bridge, possibly Meng Haoren, accompanied by a young attendant carrying a vase holding a prunus branch, all beneath arching prunus trees. The other side is decorated with a scene of a scholar sitting at the window of a pavilion watching his attendant sweep the terrace. The blue overlay beneath is carved with clouds billowing through bamboo and prunus trees.; 3 ¼ in. (8.2 cm.) high, glass stopper

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 23 March 1988, lot 290.
Bentley Collection, London.
Asian Art Studio, Los Angeles, California.
Robert Kleiner, London, 2008.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4855.

Literature: Clare and Michael Chu, The Bentley Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Los Angeles, 2008, p. 28.

Exhibited: Boston, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Asian Art Studio, September 2008.

Notes: This exquisitely carved bottle is part of a small group created in the late eighteenth century and continuing, perhaps, into the early nineteenth century. All are designed with two colors of overlay on a white ground. The two planes of overlay are distinctly carved and also overlap; the inner plane generally with a ground pattern, the outer plane with a mythological or narrative subject. 

The present example can be compared with one of the earlier examples in this group, an exceptional and rare white and blue-overlay white glass bottle in the Bloch Collection, decorated with a dynamic design of two dragons on a ground of waves and clouds, 1760-1790 (see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 5, Part 3, Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 675-676, no. 1001). The authors note the masterly balance of the overlays, which is evident on the present example, as well as the incredible technical control of the carver. While the two bottles differ in subject, they share a stunning concept of design as well as superb execution.

For other examples and a discussion of this group see ibid., pp. 680-685, nos. 1003-1005. Also see another related blue and white overlay example most likely from the same group, also depicting Meng Haoren but on a simpler ground than the present example, in the collection of Dennis Low and illustrated by D. Low in More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 148, no. 137.

Meng Haoren was reputed to have a particular admiration of prunus blossoms and many depictions of the poet depict the theme of taxue xunmei ('Searching for prunus in the snow’). For a discussion of Meng Haoren see Ka Bo Tsang, “Who is the Rider on the Donkey?”, JICSBS, Summer, 1994, pp. 4-16, fig. 14.

Christie's. THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART I, 16 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Diamond, emerald and pearl brooch, Buccellati. Estimate $24,000 - $34,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Modelled as a bouquet, the flowerheads centring old-cut diamonds and multi-coloured pearls framed by a double row of rose diamonds between burin engraved leaves, the buds embellished with carved emeralds, the emeralds and diamonds together weighing approximately 3.00 carats and 3.00 carats respectively, mounted in silver and gold, approximately 65 x 40mm, signed Buccellati. 

Sotheby's. Important Jewels, 31 Aug 2015,  Sydney, 6 PM

Pair of 18ct gold, sapphire and diamond earrings, Buccellati. Estimate $10,000 - $15,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Each flowerhead motif centring a scalloped collet set with an oval cabochon sapphire framed by sculpted petals embellished with brilliant-cut diamonds bordered by burin engraved gold leaves, the sapphires and diamonds together weighing approximately 3.00 carats and 0.40 carats respectively, length approximately 22mm, signed Buccellati, numbered A4075, clip fittings 

Sotheby's. Important Jewels, 31 Aug 2015,  Sydney, 6 PM

A well-carved grey and white jade snuff bottle, 1750-1850. Estimate $12,000 – $18,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

One side is carved in relief with an eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree above the sun rising from waves, and the reverse is carved with a pair of egrets, each standing on one leg in a pond amidst the flowers and leaves of lotus plants. 2 ½ in. (6.5 cm.) high, glass stopper

Provenance: Robert Hall, London, 2009.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2009.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4911.

Notes: The carver of this bottle has skillfully used the white shadings of the stone to different effects on either side. Particularly evocative is the manner in which the whitish-tone is used on the main side to create the effect of foamy mist rising from the waves. The scenes on both sides are laden with symbolism. The motif of an eagle standing on one leg, with sun and pine tree imparts several symbolic meanings. An eagle (ying) perched on one leg (duli) is a rebus for the phraseyingxiong duli (A great man towers over his peers). The imagery evokes ideals of courage, loyalty and the ability to achieve great things. The combination of an eagle and a pine tree conveys a wish that such a great man will live a long life. An (yi) egret (lusi) together with green (qing) lotus (lian) constitute the rebus: "[May you be] incorruptible throughout [your career] (yilu qinglian)." The single egret with the lotus seeds also means "[May you win] the top places in the successive examinations (yilu lianke)."

Christie's. THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART I, 16 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

A finely enameled glass snuff bottle, attributed to Ye Benqi or Wang Xisan, circa 1963-1965. Estimate $12,000 – $16,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The opaque white glass bottle is of somewhat irregular, circular from with a raised ridge in the center on either side, finely painted on one side with two branches bearing pomegranates and a blossom and on the other with two branches of peaches and peonies. The base is incised with an apocryphal Qianlong mark. 2 ¼ in. (5.7 cm.) high, metal stopper

Provenance: SB Collection, England.
Robert Hall, London, 2011.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong Kong, 2011.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 5237.

Literature: Robert Hall, The SB Collection, Chinese Snuff Bottles XV, London, 2011, no. 90.

Notes: Born in 1938, Wang Xisan (Wang Ruicheng) was the star pupil of Ye Bengqi, the son of Ye Zhongsan, the artist who revitalized the Beijing school of painting in the late 1950s. Ye Bengqi took up the art of enameling again in the early 1960s to teach Wang Xisan, and it is sometimes difficult with earlier Wang Xisan bottles to distinguish them from his teachers', or in some cases, from earlier Qianlong examples. The two-character reign mark in seal script seen on the present bottle was only used on enameled wares in the early 1960s.

For a discussion on the artist Wang Xisan see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 6, Part 1, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 273-275. The authors note, “As an artistic genius, Wang rapidly became one of the finest of all enamellers, both artistically and technically, that China has ever produced.” The artist paints glass snuff bottles and interior-painted snuff bottles, showing great artistry in both. The present example is typical of the quality of his painting on glass. Generally executed in famille rose enamels with floral subjects beneath a decorative border, his works echo the best enameled bottles produced at the imperial workshops during the reign of the Qianlong emperor.

Christie's. THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART I, 16 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

18ct bi-colour gold, yellow sapphire and diamond brooch, Buccellati. Estimate $22,000 - $32,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Centring a cushion-shaped sapphire weighing approximately 8.50 carats set in a textured collet framed by an open work cluster of foliate motifs accented with circular-cut diamonds mounted in a sculpted gold surround bordered by a scalloped filigree foliate pattern decorated with circular-cut diamonds, approximately 39 x 43mm, signed Buccellati, Italy, numbered 96. 

Sotheby's. Important Jewels, 31 Aug 2015, Sydney, 6 PM

Liu Dan (b. 1953), Dragon after Chen Rong, 2002. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

ink on paper, framed, dated February 12th, 2002, inscribed and marked with two seals of the artist, 11 3/8  by 14 3/4  in., 28.9 by 37.5 cm.

Notes: Liu Dan is one of several brilliant and internationally acclaimed Chinese ink masters active today, each formally trained in the classical tradition but with his own distinctive contemporary vocabulary, all working in China as well as the west over the past three decades.  

Liu Dan was born in Nanjing and studied Confucian classics, poetry, painting and calligraphy from his grandfather at an early age. From 1978-1981, he attended the Jiangsu Chinese Painting Academy, studying traditional painting under Ya Ming. He moved to the United States in 1981, living first in Honolulu and later in New York before returning to Beijing in 2005.

For the past three and a half decades, Liu has produced an exhilarating legacy of physical grandeur, spiritual immensity and delicately rendered lyrical power, whether it be monumental landscapes, multi-faceted portraits of individual rocks, very fine studies of people or his distinctive representations of flowers and traditional Chinese dictionaries.

This very rare depiction of a dragon was inspired by the iconic paintings of the Song dynasty artist Chen Rong, notably his painting Nine Dragons, dated 1244, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in T. Wu, Tales from the Land of Dragons, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997, pp. 197-201. 

His works are in numerous museums, corporate and private collections throughout the world. He has had solo and group exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the United States including the San Diego Museum of Art; the Suzhou Museum; the Musée Guimet, Paris; the British Museum, London; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Far Eastern Museum Berlin; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Harvard University Sackler Museum; the Princeton University Museum of Art; and the Yale University Museum.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

Liu Dan (b. 1953), The rock remembers, 2003. Estimate80,000 — 100,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

ink on paper, framed, signed, marked with one seal of the artist, 15 1/2  by 14 in., 39.4 by 35.6 cm.

Notes: Whether of stones, poppy flowers, or classically-inspired landscapes, Liu Dan's works embody an exceptional beauty, one balanced between sold, calculated composition and elegant, free-hand gestures. In his paintings of rocks, which are based on actual stones accurately rendered, Liu is inspired by the works of Northern Song dynasty masters and his goal is the “objective representation of the subject matter” that somehow goes beyond a ‘true’ representation of reality, to a quintessential form, isolated on the picture plane.

Liu’s treatment of the subject is elegant, spiritual and constructive, capturing the minutest details of its surface, to the point that the stone itself almost seems like a landscape. He describes rocks as the ‘stem cells’ of landscape, a starting place with infinite possibilities for development, as well as the basis for Chinese people's understanding of space and time. When he portrays particular rocks he adheres to the form before him. By contrast, his landscape paintings seem to unfold organically in an almost inevitable progression that resonates with the artist's ‘stem cell’ concept. As we examine his rock or landscape paintings, seeking to grasp the details of the vast cosmos within, we find them elusive: the gentle touch of the brush is so reserved that not only does it resist revealing the artist's hand, it also stops short of precisely delimiting the rocky form. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A long huanghuali corner-leg table (tiaozhuo), Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the rectangular single board panel secured within a broad molded frame, above a recessed waist, over a beaded and scrolling apron well-carved in relief with lively leafy scrolls, a pair of sinuous confrontingchilong centered by intertwining foliate scrolls, the corners carved with animal masks extending to pendent foliate motifs, above beaded humpback stretchers with archaistic dragon-head terminals joining the four gently curving legs of square section, terminating in outward-scrolled feet, the underside with three transverse stretchers. Height 34 3/4  in., 88.27 cm; Width 69 1/4  in., 175.9 cm; Depth 19 1/2  in., 49.5 cm

Property from the Zihanxuan collection

Provenance: Acquired from a private family collection in Canada in the 1980s.

Bibliography: Philip Mak, "Chinese Wood Tables," Arts of Asia, vol. 41, no. 2, March-April 2011, pp. 91-106, pl. 22.

Note: This very rare table is notable for the sophistication and complexity of the relief carving. The rhythmic scrolling lines of the apron and bold strength of the animal headed stretchers are rarely seen on tables of this size. There are square tables with barbed aprons and arched stretchers but the present piece relates most closely to the decorative carving found on a group of stools. A pair from this group, from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, was sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 1996, lot 104 and again recently at Quinn & Farmer Auctions, Charlottesville, Virginia, 18th April 2015, lot 52. Another stool from this group, from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, sold in these rooms, 10th October 1987, lot 409. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A rare pair of rectangular huanghuali cabriole-leg stools (changfangdeng), 17th century. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

each with a waisted molded frame enclosing a soft-mat seat, supported by two bowed stretchers and four S-curve giant arm braces, with elegantly beaded scrolling and cusped aprons, resting on gently curving cabriole legs terminating in outward-turned scrolled feet (2). Height 20 3/8  in., 51.8 cm; Width 23 in, 58.4 cm; Depth 18 in., 45.7 cm

Property from the Zihanxuan collection

Provenance: Acquired from a private family collection in Canada in the 1980s.

Bibliography: Philip Mak, "Chinese Seating Furniture," Arts of Asia, vol. 40, no. 9, May-June 2010, pp. 93-109, pl. 46. 

Notes: A stool of identical form is illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Classical Chinese Furniture Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 18 and again by the same author in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, pl. A25 where he discusses the form at some length. Wang notes that curving legs were considered a most admirable quality among Ming literati. In addition to the refined aesthetic, carving the serpentine line of the legs required an extravagant amount of the valuable and costly hardwood.  

Refer also to two related cabriole-leg stools formerly in the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, but with carved aprons, legs and stretchers, sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 1996, lot 104, and illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, San Francisco and Chicago, 1995, pl. 17 and Sarah Handler "The Ubiquitous Stool", Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Summer 1994, pls. 19 and 19a.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A copper-red glazed vase (yuhuchunping), Qianlong seal mark and period. Estimate 80,000 — 100,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

elegantly potted with a pear-shaped body sweeping up to a waisted neck and a broad everted rim, supported on a short slightly splayed foot, richly applied on the exterior with a copper-red glaze and well controlled around the foot and rim, the base inscribed with the seal mark in underglaze-blue. Height 11 3/4  in., 29.9 cm

Property from the Songzhutang collection

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 17th September 2003, lot 100. 

Note: A closely related vase in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 346; one is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 697; another from the Duke of Fife and Bulgari collections was sold in these rooms, 14 September 2011, lot 213; and a fourth vase from the Gordon collection was sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1144.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A 'Longquan' celadon 'cong' vase, Song dynasty. Estimate60,000 — 80,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

modeled after an archaic jade cong, the body of attenuated square section supported on a short tapering foot ring, rising to a flat shoulder and a thick circular neck, the corners carved with eight raised horizontal bands, each within a raised rectangular panel, covered overall with a thick lustrous celadon glaze, Japanese wood box (2). Height 9 in., 22.7 cm

Property from a private Japanese collection formed prior to World War II

Notes: Cong-shaped Longquan celadon wares represent one of the most classic and characteristic types of Song dynasty porcelain, with both the shape and glaze imitating archaic jade. The shape follows that of neolithic ritual jades known as cong, which were carved as open tubes during the neolithic Liangzhu culture in Southeastern China, such as an example from the Shanghai Museum, included in the exhibition Gems of Liangzhu Culture, Hong Kong Museum of History, 1992, cat. no. 57. 

The deep celadon glaze was a color highly prized in Japan under the term 'kinuta celadon', after mallet (kinuta) shaped vases. Celadon wares of this type come from an extensive region in southern Zhejiang province, covering Longquan as well as many neighboring counties. 

A number of Longquan celadon cong-form vases of this design are published, including several in renowned museum collections. An example in the Qing court collection is illustrated in Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II). The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 97; two from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Green. Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2009, cat. nos 149 (left and center); one is in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Longquan ciqi, Beijing, 1966, pl. 15; another from the Eumorfopoulos collection and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is included in John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 124; and a sixth example from the Oppenheim collection and now in the British Museum, London, is published in Jessica Rawson (ed.), The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, pl. 8 (left). 

Compare also a vase of this type, from the Toguri collection, sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 53; and another also from a Japanese collection, recently sold in the same rooms, 13th May 2015, lot 106.  

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

Xu Bing (b. 1955), Landscript, 2002. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

ink on Nepalese paper, framed, signed in pinyin, dated 2002 and marked with one seal of the artist, 19 by 68 in., 48.3 by 172.7 cm

Provenance: Acquired from Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2002

Notes: Born in Chongqing and a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1987, Xu Bing is one of China's most important living artists. His extraordinary imagination and brilliant technical skills have created over three decades worth of ever-evolving works and themes: from his early volumes of books and woodcuts, notably the iconic ‘Book from the Sky', 1988, his exploration of words and ‘meanings’, through invented characters; dioramas in mixed media in ‘Background Story’, 2004; his calligraphy installations, notably 'The Living Word', 2001; to installations including the monumental 'Phoenix Project', 2007-2010 and ‘Tao Hua Yuan: A Lost Village Utopia' (The story of the Peach Blossom Spring), 2014 at Chatsworth.

In the fall of 1999, together with several fellow artists, Xu Bing embarked on a trekking trip in Nepal and his drawings from the series 'Landcripts from the Himalayan Journal’ combined his love of nature and fascination with language, shown in innovative landscapes where he used hanzi, the pictorial structure of characters, to form the terrain. 1999 was also the year he won the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, a tall tree amongst his vast forest of accolades. His works have been shown in innumerable museums and institutions worldwide  including Duke University; the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Cornell University; the National Arts Museum of  China, Beijing; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Xu Bing has lived and worked in the United states since 1990 but returned to China in 2007 to teach at the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA).

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

Zeng Xiaojun (b. 1954), Yellow Mountain I. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

ink on paper, framed, signed, and marked with one seal of the artist, 45 1/2  by 74 1/2  in., 115 by 189 cm.

Notes: Born in Beijing and a 1981 graduate of Beijing’s Central Art and Craft Academy, Zeng is a contemporary exemplar of the Ming literati artist. An authority on classical Chinese furniture and collector of scholars’ rocks, bonsai, works of art and all things wood, and a furniture maker himself, Zeng also specializes in the painting of ancient trees, a tradition distinct from landscape paintings. He is a portrait painter and his subjects are old twisted trees, contorted roots and vines. In 2014 he returned to his early explorations of landscapes with two majestic visions of the Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province, freshly inspired and exhilarated from a trek there.

His works are in the Minneapolis Museum of Art and major private collections worldwide and  has been shown in numerous exhibitions and museums, including  the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam; the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; the Today Art Museum, Beijing and the Musée Guimet, Paris.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A huanghuali yokeback armchair (sichutou guanmaoyi), 17th century. Estimate 70,000 — 90,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the shaped crestrail with extending truncated ends, the two corner posts with a gentle S-curve to the seat frame and forming the back legs, centered by a wide serpentine rectangular splat, the outscrolled arms with S-form mid and front supports, the molded edged frame enclosing a hard mat seat, above beaded and shaped front and side aprons, the cylindrical legs joined by low front and side stretchers and a high back stretcher, two transverse stretchers beneath. Height 45 3/8  in., 115.3 cm; Width 25 1/4  in., 64.1 cm; Depth 21 in., 53.3 cm

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 2nd May, 1985, lot 8.

Notes: In the late Ming dynasty, the elegant simplicity of this imposing and spare form represented the height of grand literati taste. The famed 17th century arbiter of refinement, Wen Zhenheng, in his best known work, Zhang Wu Zhi (Treatise on Superfluous Things) advocated restrained design as exemplified by the present armchair and goes so far as to describe excessive decoration as vulgar. Similar examples of this classic form are illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1990, pl. A70; and one of a pair illustrated in Nancy Berliner, Beyond the Screen, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1996, p. 104, cat. no. 8. 

For a general discussion on the basic model and elegant decorative vocabulary of these chairs, see Curtis Evarts, 'From Ornate to Unadorned, A Study of Yokeback Chairs', Journal of the Chinese Classical Furniture Society, Spring 1993, pp. 24-33. Examples of this form recently at auction include one sold in our London rooms, 13th May 2015, lot 115; and two in these rooms, 17th-18th March 2015, lot 221 and 18th-19th March 2014, lot 419. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A pair of huanghuali octagonal incense stands (xiangji), Late Ming-Early Qing dynasty, 17th century. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

each with an octagonal floating panel set within a molded frame formed by eight straight segments, above a high waist divided into eight plain panels extending to wide lappet-form scalloped aprons with outlined edges, supported on four slender cabriole legs terminating in slipper feet set into an ingot-shaped base raised on four low bracket feet (2). Height 34 3/4  in., 88.3 cm; Width 18 in., 45.7 cm; Depth 18 in., 45.7 cm

Property of the Zihanxuan collection

Provenance: Acquired from a private family collection in Canada in the 1980s. 

Bibliography: Philip Mak, "Chinese Wooden Tables," Arts of Asia, vol. 41, no. 2, March-April 2011, pp. 91-106, pl. 44.

Notes: In addition to serving as supports for censers, incense stands also functioned as platforms to display antiques, scholar's rocks and floral arrangements. In the famous treatise Zunsheng Bajian (Discourse on the Art of Living) by the 17th century dramatist Gao Lian, the author comments specifically on the form, describing a variety of sizes and forms. Regarding the taller forms such as the present, Gao comments, "They can be used for displaying stones or strange rocks, a platter of citrus fruit, a vase filled with flowers or a single incense burning censer. This is the use of the high stand."

There appears to be only one other known example of this unusual form and it is illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. B 31. The stand, noted as belonging to the author, is illustrated again in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 75 and he remarks on the interesting form and its taller than average height concluding, "Its form is rather novel, and I have not seen another stand like it."(ibid. p. 279) The present pair are of a more standard height and therefore of slightly different proportion to the example now in the Shanghai Museum but clearly constitute another example of this elegant form. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

Callot Soeurs, Dress, 1925-1926

Callot Soeurs, Dress, 1925-1926

A lavender-blue 'Jun' tripod censer, Jin-Yuan dynasty. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

he compressed globular body supported on three short cabriole legs, the short broad neck culminating in a wide angled galleried rim, covered with a lightly crackled and slightly translucent lavender-blue glaze of even tone with a fine glossy surface extending over the interior and exterior and completely covering the base, thinning at the rim to a pale mushroom color, the tips of the feet left unglazed  Height 4 1/2  in., 11.4 cm

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, November 1986.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015

A 'moon white''Jun' bowl, Song dynasty. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

with steep rounded sides rising to a delicately incurved rim, covered overall in an evenly applied 'moon white' glaze of milky lavender-blue suffused with a pale crackle and draining to a mushroom color at the rim, the glaze pooling unevenly above the unglazed foot ring, Japanese wood box (2). Diameter 8 1/4  in., 21.2 cm

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo.
Private Japanese Collection. 

Notes: One of the 'five famous wares of the Song dynasty', 'Jun' ware was much admired for the beauty of its glaze, which ranged from moon-white to sky-blue, and often contrasted against a vivid purple splash. Deriving its name from the kiln near Juntai terrace within the north gate of the Yuzhou prefecture in Henan province,  'Jun' wares were produced from the end of the Northern Song period to the Ming dynasty. 

See a 'moon-white'-glazed 'Jun' bowl of closely related color but of slightly different proportions, in the Qing court collection, illustrated in Selection of Jun Ware: the Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2013, cat. no. 9.  See another 'Jun' bowl of closely related form and size, but with a sky-blue glaze, discovered in 1963 at Huangzhuang, Henan province and now in the Henan Provincial Museum, published in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese Ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 7, pl. 186.

Compare a bowl of similar size, form and color sold in these rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 543. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015