TWO FAMILLE VERTE FIGURES OF BUDDHISTIC LIONS

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR AND HEDWIG WORCH

Details

TWO FAMILLE VERTE FIGURES OF BUDDHISTIC LIONS
KANGXI

Both modeled as the female lion cuddling her cub to her breast, each seated on its haunches on a rectangular plinth, both with pale green- glazed bodies and yellow and green heads, the mane, tail and curls picked out in aubergine, yellow, green and blue enamels, the details picked out in iron-red, each with flared nostrils and open mouth trailing a long, narrow ribbon, each plinth decorated with quatrefoil and square panels enclosing flowers and insects against a prunus and 'cracked ice' pattern ground, some restoration and cracks--17¾in. (45cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

A very similar pair of Buddhistic lions modeled in mirror image was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1935-6, Catalogue no. 1656, p. 157; another is in the Royal Household Collection, Drottingholm Palace, illustrated by Jan Wirgin, B.M.F.E.A., 'K'ang Hsi Porcelain', 1974, no. 46, pl. 46; and another is illustrated by Michel Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector Throughout the Centuries, 1966, no. 160, p. 254. A slightly different pair is illustrated by Gorer and Blacker, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstones, London, 1911, vol. I, pl. 83

Similar examples of mirror image pairs have sold in these rooms, June, 5, 1986, lot 310; a pair from the Estate of Bernice Richard, December 2, 1989, lot 400 and another pair, December 2, 1993, lot 285