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Lot Essay
Although these magnificent hawks do not appear on the various inventories prepared during the lifetime of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851-1925), they may well have been one of the vast number of purchases made by the 1st Viscount, whose taste for Chinese porcelain of the highest quality, was reflected in his magnificent collection. It was further enhanced in 1913 by the purchase of the Collection of Richard Bennett. The 1949 inventory, on which these hawks are listed, was compiled on the death of the 2nd Viscount.
Pairs of Chinese models of hawks appear surprisingly frequently in sales records of the mid-18th century, and would appear to have been made in several sizes. The pair in the present lot probably depict sparrowhawks, described as éperviers in French auction records, and possibly known to the Chinese as haidongqing, a small hawk used by the Chinese for goose hunting. 'Deux éperviers' are recorded in the Tallard sale as early as 1756, others are similarly described in the Gaignat sale of 1769 (lot 119), and specifically '....de porcelain brune d'ancien la Chine.... in the Natoire sale of 1778 (lot 55), indentifying them as being old. (See W. R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection, Salem, 1991, p. 170 where a reproduction of the Gaignat sale catalogue complete with a sketch by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the margin is reproduced as fig. 79a.).
A pair of hawks of similar size and decoration to those in the present lot are in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, formerly in the Collection of J. A. Lloyd Hyde, illustrated ibid., no. 79, p. 171. Another similar pair of hawks is illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 301, fig. 12, and sold in these Rooms, 22 June 1981, lot 179, and another pair sold in Sotheby's London, 11 November 1997, lot 179. A pair of related hawks but with unusual underglaze blue domed rockwork was exhibited by The Chinese Porcelain Company, Chinese Export Porcelain including Figures from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gill, 10 - 26 October 2002, catalogue no. 52; and a similar single figure, also with domed rockwork, is in the Hodroff Collection, illustrated by D. S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, pp. 264-5, no. 317.
Pairs of Chinese models of hawks appear surprisingly frequently in sales records of the mid-18th century, and would appear to have been made in several sizes. The pair in the present lot probably depict sparrowhawks, described as éperviers in French auction records, and possibly known to the Chinese as haidongqing, a small hawk used by the Chinese for goose hunting. 'Deux éperviers' are recorded in the Tallard sale as early as 1756, others are similarly described in the Gaignat sale of 1769 (lot 119), and specifically '....de porcelain brune d'ancien la Chine.... in the Natoire sale of 1778 (lot 55), indentifying them as being old. (See W. R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection, Salem, 1991, p. 170 where a reproduction of the Gaignat sale catalogue complete with a sketch by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the margin is reproduced as fig. 79a.).
A pair of hawks of similar size and decoration to those in the present lot are in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, formerly in the Collection of J. A. Lloyd Hyde, illustrated ibid., no. 79, p. 171. Another similar pair of hawks is illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 301, fig. 12, and sold in these Rooms, 22 June 1981, lot 179, and another pair sold in Sotheby's London, 11 November 1997, lot 179. A pair of related hawks but with unusual underglaze blue domed rockwork was exhibited by The Chinese Porcelain Company, Chinese Export Porcelain including Figures from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gill, 10 - 26 October 2002, catalogue no. 52; and a similar single figure, also with domed rockwork, is in the Hodroff Collection, illustrated by D. S. Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, pp. 264-5, no. 317.