Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 37
A blue and white 'phoenix-tail' vase Kangxi
10 November 2016, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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A blue and white 'phoenix-tail' vase
Kangxi
The body skilfully painted in exceptionally vivid underglaze blue with a continuous scene of a visitor supplicating a dignitary seated in his hall surrounded by ladies and attendants in front of a painting of foaming waves, the hall opening onto a terrace with further dignitaries, craggy rockwork and delicate trees, the flaring neck with a lady peeping out at a dignitary admonishing a maidservant over a spilt cup of tea, with two boys looking on and two more on the terrace with lanterns.
44.8cm (17 5/8in) high
The body skilfully painted in exceptionally vivid underglaze blue with a continuous scene of a visitor supplicating a dignitary seated in his hall surrounded by ladies and attendants in front of a painting of foaming waves, the hall opening onto a terrace with further dignitaries, craggy rockwork and delicate trees, the flaring neck with a lady peeping out at a dignitary admonishing a maidservant over a spilt cup of tea, with two boys looking on and two more on the terrace with lanterns.
44.8cm (17 5/8in) high
Footnotes
清康熙 青花人物故事圖鳳尾尊
Provenance: a British private collection
Sold in these rooms on 15 May 2014, lot 55
來源：英國私人收藏
2014年5月14日於倫敦邦瀚斯拍賣，拍品55號
The story of the spilt cup refers to a famous episode in history which even became a proverb: 'spilt water can't be gathered up' (覆水難收). According to legend, when Jiang Ziya became a poor hermit fisherman to avoid service to the tyrannical last ruler of the Shang dynasty, his wife despaired at their poverty and so left him. When Jiang Ziya was employed by the Zhou dynasty in overthrowing the Shang, he was ennobled as a Duke and became wealthy and powerful again. His former wife hearing of his elevated status then pleaded to come back and become his wife again, whereupon Jiang Ziya threw a pot of water on the ground and asked her to put the water back in. He scolded her by saying that being together after she left him would be like trying to put water back into a broken pot.
Compare with a similar blue and white phoenix-tail vase, with the same decoration of a spilt cup, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong on 30 November 2011, lot 2950.
