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Lot Essay
The seal Xu Yunlin zhi, which appears on the back of the figure of Samantabhadra, is that of the potter Xu Youyi (1887-1949). According to J. Ayers in Blanc de Chine, Divine Images in Porcelain, New York, 2002, p. 121, Xu was a follower of the potter Su Xuejin, and came from a family of carvers of wood and clay figures. Xu’s skill at emanating the work of the early potters at Dehua is evidenced in works such as the standing Buddha in the aforementioned exhibition, p. 121., no. 72, and it is no surprise that P. J. Donnelly, one of the earliest scholars of Dehua porcelain, considered Xu to be a late 18th-century potter. For further information on the life of Xu Youyi see R.H. Blumenfield, Blanc de Chine, The Great Porcelain of Dehua, Berkeley, 2002, p. 145, and also pp. 204-205 and frontispiece for a similar Dehua figure of Samantabhadra on an elepant.
A pair of figures of Manjusri and Samantabhadra on a lion and elephant, respectively, both with Xu Yunlin zhi seals, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2013. Another related pair of figures of Manjusri and Samantabhadra, from the estate of C.P. Shortman, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 1 December 1988, lots 263 and 264.
A pair of figures of Manjusri and Samantabhadra on a lion and elephant, respectively, both with Xu Yunlin zhi seals, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2013. Another related pair of figures of Manjusri and Samantabhadra, from the estate of C.P. Shortman, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 1 December 1988, lots 263 and 264.