Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 39
A blue and white beaker vase, gu Circa 1640
12 May 2016, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £20,000 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
A blue and white beaker vase, gu
Circa 1640
The flaring neck vibrantly painted with a scene of a kneeling attendant presenting an official's cap to a dignitary surrounded by attendants with a horse and soldiers carrying banners, the mid-section decorated with a scholar reclining at leisure next to a pile of books while his boy-attendant brings his zither in its silk case, the lower section with pendent leaf lappets, the rim incised with a floral scroll and around the lower body a chevron band. 43.2cm (17in) high
The flaring neck vibrantly painted with a scene of a kneeling attendant presenting an official's cap to a dignitary surrounded by attendants with a horse and soldiers carrying banners, the mid-section decorated with a scholar reclining at leisure next to a pile of books while his boy-attendant brings his zither in its silk case, the lower section with pendent leaf lappets, the rim incised with a floral scroll and around the lower body a chevron band. 43.2cm (17in) high
Footnotes
約1640年 青花加官圖花觚
According to Scarlett Jang, generic representations of the emperor's emissary handing a scroll or cap of official appointment was a popular motif of Zhe school and court painters during the Ming dynasty. The present vase highlights a dilemma faced by the scholar-officials after the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644. To serve the emperor was to fulfill the highest Confucian obligation, but to serve the invading Manchu emperor would compromise loyalty to the fallen Ming. See J.Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century: Landscapes, Scholars' Motifs and Narratives, New York, 1995, p.144.
Compare a dish, dated to the Shunzhi period, with a similar motif illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2002, pp.4-5.
Additional information
Bid now on these items
