Lot 125
125
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE ELEPHANT BEARING PAGODA
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF GORDON T. LITTLE
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE ELEPHANT BEARING PAGODA

FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

Details
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE ELEPHANT BEARING PAGODA
FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY
The beast standing foursquare with head erect and forward, his ears and hide deeply wrinkled and his tail curled to the side, the separate double-roofed pagoda slotted to fit onto a square projection in his flat, white-glazed back
18¾in. (47.5cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

A very small number of animals are known with this oddly incongruous underglaze blue decoration of the gates of a great city, based on a famous Tang ode to the city of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province. W.R. Sargent illustrates a pair of elephants in the Copeland collection (op. cit., pp. 240-2) and cites a pair of turtle tureens offered at the 1978 Philadelphia Antiques Show. E. Gordon illustrates a single goat, and Sotheby's New York sold a pair of sows, 18 January 1996, lot 182.

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