.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This figure most likely represents Zaowang, the patron god of the stove or kitchen. This deity is traditionally regarded as determining the life-span of each family member, holding sway over the family's prosperity, and reporting on their misdeeds and meretorious actions to other-worldly officials on the 23rd day of the 12th month each year. On such days he is propitiated by being given sweets, perhaps explaining the shelf-like area for offerings formed by the arms of the present figure. For a discussion of this deity, see C.A.S. Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, New York, 1976, 3rd ed., pp. 210-211.
Compare a blue and white figure of a seated Daoist deity formerly from the collection of Sir Harry and Lady Garner, illustrated in Mostra d'Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, p. 184, no. 678; a seated figure of Zhenwu, the God of the North, from the collection of C.T. Loo in An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1949, p. 97, no. 126; and a seated figure from the Zhengde period in the Tianjin Municipal Museum, illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 111. See, also, a very similar Wanli period blue and white figure of this deity sold at Christie's London, 15 June 1999, lot 62.
Compare a blue and white figure of a seated Daoist deity formerly from the collection of Sir Harry and Lady Garner, illustrated in Mostra d'Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, p. 184, no. 678; a seated figure of Zhenwu, the God of the North, from the collection of C.T. Loo in An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1949, p. 97, no. 126; and a seated figure from the Zhengde period in the Tianjin Municipal Museum, illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 111. See, also, a very similar Wanli period blue and white figure of this deity sold at Christie's London, 15 June 1999, lot 62.