KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Based on research by Ni Yibin, in Kan Tu Shuo Ci (Narrating the Scenes on Chinese Porcelains), Beijing, 2008, pp.107-112, the decoration on the present vase may be identified as a scene from Hongfu Ji (The Story of the Maiden with a Red Whisk), a Chinese opera script written by the famed Ming-dynasty playwright Zhang Fengyi. The play tells the story of the romantic rendezvous between Lady Hongfu, shown standing to the right of the scene and holding her trademark whisk with two other female attendants, and the military hero Li Jing, seated on a chair opposite the head of the household. A Kangxi-period blue and white rouleau vase formerly in the Norton Museum of Art collection, decorated with a scene from the same story, was sold at Christie’s New York, 20 September 2005, lot 333. Another Kangxi blue-and-white bottle vase in the Shanghai Museum, also decorated with the same scene, is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, p. 72, no. 47.