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Lot Essay
The present facetted vase has tall tapering sides and is surmounted by a trumpet neck. Two sides are inscribed with the `Ode to the Red Cliff’ by the Song-dynasty poet, Su Shi (1037-1101). The other two sides are decorated with figures in landscape and riverscape illustrating scenes from the poem. The shoulders are further decorated with floral sprays and the neck with bamboo.
The two long inscriptions to the sides contain the Former Ode to the Red Cliff and the Later Ode to the Red Cliff, both composed by the famous Song Dynasty poet Su Shi (1037-1101). The nine-characters following each long inscription contain the titles of the poems and Su Shi’s other name, Su Zizhan. This subject was very popular during the Kangxi period and appears on a variety of high-quality blue and white wares, including brush pots, square-section vases, large ‘phoenix-tail vases’ and gu-form vases. A very similar 'Red Cliff' square vase is in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 42-43, pl. 31; and another similar vase is illustrated by Julia Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, New York, 1995, p. 84, no. 26. A nearly identical example with related scenes and inscription was sold at Christie’s Paris, 6 July 2022, lot 184. Another brush pot example with inscriptions only from the `Second Ode on the Red Cliff’ was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 September 2022, lot 1013.
The Butler Family had another ‘Ode to Red Cliff’ square vase, inscribed with a Kangxi six-character mark and of the period; it was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong as part of its first single-owner collection section, 29 November 2022, lot 2968.
The two long inscriptions to the sides contain the Former Ode to the Red Cliff and the Later Ode to the Red Cliff, both composed by the famous Song Dynasty poet Su Shi (1037-1101). The nine-characters following each long inscription contain the titles of the poems and Su Shi’s other name, Su Zizhan. This subject was very popular during the Kangxi period and appears on a variety of high-quality blue and white wares, including brush pots, square-section vases, large ‘phoenix-tail vases’ and gu-form vases. A very similar 'Red Cliff' square vase is in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 42-43, pl. 31; and another similar vase is illustrated by Julia Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, New York, 1995, p. 84, no. 26. A nearly identical example with related scenes and inscription was sold at Christie’s Paris, 6 July 2022, lot 184. Another brush pot example with inscriptions only from the `Second Ode on the Red Cliff’ was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 September 2022, lot 1013.
The Butler Family had another ‘Ode to Red Cliff’ square vase, inscribed with a Kangxi six-character mark and of the period; it was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong as part of its first single-owner collection section, 29 November 2022, lot 2968.