KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

This rare jardinière is decorated on each side with a different bird or animal; one side is decorated with two cranes beneath a pine tree that appear under the Kangxi mark, and the opposite side shows a tiger focusing its gaze on a butterfly beneath another pine tree. The other two sides feature birds and other flowering branches. Imperial Kangxi-period jardinières were also made with faceted sides and of quatrefoil and octagonal shape, some with or without feet, and were also produced with underglaze blue and doucai decoration, always with the mark in a line on the underside of the rim. It has been suggested that these jardinières were possibly commissioned for the Kangxi emperor’s 70th birthday (1723) (see Peter Y. K. Lam, ‘Lang Tingji and the Porcelain of the Late Kangxi Period’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 68, 2003-2004, p. 44).

The famille verte versions are generally decorated with birds, animals and flowers. An octagonal example of larger size (51.5 cm. wide) than the present lot in the Palace Museum, Beijing, supported on a canted foot, is in illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 104, pl. 95. A rectangular example of similar shape and feet to the present jardinière and of slightly larger size (36 cm.), decorated in underglaze blue with landscape panels, also from the National Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 67, pl. 58. Also, see, a large (51.1 cm. high) doucai example decorated with immortals from the Jiu Rui Tong collection is illustrated by J. Stamen and C. Volk with Ni Yibin in A Culture Revealed: Kangxi-era Chinese Porcelain from the Jie Rui Tang Collection, Bruges, 2017, pl. 14 and sold at Sotheby’s New York, 20 March 2018, lot 367.