A RARE LARGE LACQUER AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL-DECORATED PORCELAIN VASE

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Details

A RARE LARGE LACQUER AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL-DECORATED PORCELAIN VASE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The vase is of elongated ovoid shape with a waisted neck and flaring mouth. The white-glazed porcelain is lacquered and finely inlaid with mother-of-pearl around the exterior to depict three scholars at a table beside bamboo and rocks before a river scene, all between geometric bands and a further river scene to the neck.
19 ¾ in. (50.2 cm.) high

Sale room notice

Please note that this lot should be marked with an CROSS symbol in the printed catalogue, and as such import VAT is payable (at 20%) on the Hammer price, in addition to the usual 20% VAT on the Buyer’s Premium.

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Lot Essay

This style of lacquer decoration with delicate mother-of-pearl inlays seems to have come to prominence in the latter part of the Kangxi reign. Many examples depict figures in landscape or garden scenes, and some are taken from woodblock prints, as in the case of a square dish exhibited in Hong Kong (illustrated in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993, pp. 184-5, no. 96), the scene on which is taken from the Yuzhi Gengzhi tu (Imperial Edition of Pictures of Tilling and Weaving), which was printed in 1712.
A baluster vase decorated in this similar style was sold in Christies London, 17 June 2003, lot 66. A similar vase from the collection of George de Menasce, OBE, was illustrated in the Spink & Sons, London, catalogue in 1971, p. 51, no. 206. Compare also the larger and slightly later vase decorated in this style, sold in our Christies New York, 16 September 1998, lot 51.

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