AN IMPERIAL INSCRIBED ZITAN RECTANGULAR STAND

18TH CENTURY

Details

AN IMPERIAL INSCRIBED ZITAN RECTANGULAR STAND
18TH CENTURY
The stand is of rectangular, lobed form. The top has a raised, central rectangular panel carved with raised scrollwork, and is carved with four round depressions at the corners. The whole is raised on a base of conforming shape with beaded edge and supported on four squat feet. The underside is inscribed with a lengthy inscription referring to the auspicious vessel that once was placed on this stand, followed by the apocryphal signature of Zhao Mengfu.
1 5/8 in. (4.3 cm.) high, 7 ½ in. (19.2 cm.) wide, 5 ¾ in. (14.8 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

A related, low shaped rectangular wood stand can be found in an eighteenth-century hand scroll painted by anonymous court painters entitled Pictures of Ancient Playthings, scroll 6, currently in the Percival David Foundation, London, and illustrated by E. Rawski and J. Rawson, China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 252-3, pl. 168, where it is shown displaying an archaic bronze ritual vessel (fangding). Another related example can be found in an anonymous court painting, Twelve Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen, the Future Yongzheng Emperor, dating to the late Kangxi period (between 1709-1723), illustrated ibid., pp. 258-9, pl. 173, in which a court lady is seated observing two cats next to a bronze fangding. The presence of four circular depressions on the current example suggest that the stand may have once supported a similar object in bronze, jade, cloisonné enamel, or porcelain.

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