Berlin, Chinesische Kunst, Preußische Akademie der Künste, 10 January - 2 April 1929
Illustrated:
Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, 1929, p. 348, fig. 947
Provenance:
The Collection of Kurt Meyer, Los Angeles, USA c. 1929
Christie’s, London, 25 March 1974, lot 12
Elephants have long been favored in China as subjects for art, being sacred to the Buddhist faith and symbols of strength, wisdom and good fortune. The Chinese word for ‘elephant’ (xiang) sounds like the word for happiness, and the term for ‘saddle cloth’ (an) is a homonym for peace, and so elephant figurines carried auspicious connotations of peace and happiness.
While famille rose and enamel elephants are typical of the Qianlong period (1736-1795) and early nineteenth century,
earlier famille verte examples are scarce, though elephants sometimes appear as motifs on vessels of this colouring. Notable examples include a Kangxi period elephant in the Victoria and Albert Museum and a Qianlong period elephant and vase group in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. P121h57 (13 July 2021) is consistent with the dating of this figure.
Fig. 1.
The splendid saddle cloth, magnificently painted in bright famille verte enamels
Fig. 2.
(Far left) The elephant in Christie’s, 1974; (left) at Chinesische Kunst in Berlin, 1929
Fig. 3.
(Left) The elephant with bright contoured eyes; the hide created with fine stokes of black
2. MANDARIN
AND FEMALE ATTENDANT
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722) China.
Soapstone, paint, gilt
H: 42.5 43.7 cm
Published:
R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art: Textiles – Glass and Painting of Glass – Carvings in Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn – Carvings in Hardstones – Snuff Bottles – Inkcakes and Inkstones (2nd ed., rev. William Watson) (Oxford, 1981), p. 208, fig. 181 Hussey, Christopher, ‘Buxted Park, Sussex – II, The Home of Mr. and the Hon. Mrs. Basil Ionides’, Country Life (11th August 1950), p. 445, fig. 8, the Library, showing the figures in situ
Provenance:
The collection of Mr Basil (1884-1950) and the Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides (1883-1962), the Library at Buxted Park, Sussex By descent to Lady Camilla Panufnik, née Jessel (b.1937), wife of symphonic composer, Andrzej Panufnik
The extraordinary nature of the present figures is constituted not only by their quality and large size but their subject matter, which is of secular court officials, where the great majority Chinese soapstone figural carvings, distinct from those often of mythological beasts incorporated into seals, depict sacred figures, often Guanyin , an Immortal or a luohan or bodhisattva.
A handful of small soapstone carvings of Western secular figures are known, of which two were also in the Ionides
collection. 1 Also known are a number of carvings of Chinese scholars and legendary soldiers. 2 Yet other examples of court officials, of this quality and scale, do not appear in literature, private or institutional collections or auction data, with the present figures appearing to be exceptional.
The mandarin and his attendant are superbly modelled. They are sensitively postured in the folds of their flowing robes and their faces are charged with contemplative expression.
The figures are of carved soapstone, enriched with veins of colour and polychrome and gold decoration. The male figure wears the rank badge, buzi , of a crane, emblazoned amongst clouds and roundels of flowers and stylised scrolling grasses as a large square on his chest and back, identifying him as a civil official, a mandarin, of the first rank.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, four types of rank insignia - for imperial, cencors, civil officials and militarywere current. A badge featuring a bird identified the wearer
as a civil official, and under the Qing dynasty the order from highest to lowest was crane, golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail and paradise flycatcher. 2
The emperor, his immediate imperial family and the highest-ranking nobility wore circular badges, signifying heaven, containing either long or mang five-clawed dragons. Lower ranking nobility such as the present mandarin wore square badges, symbolising earth. In the same way, the mandarin’s
(Left)
Fig. 1.
(Opposite) The two figures shown head on, magnificently carved with flowing robes
Fig. 2.
The back of the mandarin, showing the well-figures stone and the rank badge
Fig. 3.
(Below) The crane in the mandarin’s buzi on his back, originally in vibrant red
robe is also embroidered with four-clawed dragons. Below these dragons, whose long tails wrap around the leg portion of the robe, are waves which crash against towering rocks rising up amongst clouds.
The female figure, or possibly the mandarin’s wife, as has been suggested by R. Soame Jenyns, wears similarly rich clothing, incised with clouds, stylised embroidery and scalloped roundels of flowers and grasses. 3 Married Manchu women would typically hair in the gaoliang way, with a chignon fashioned around a piece of wood positioned horizontally across her head, signifying their married status, instead of a simple chignon, which indicated unmarried status. 4
Fig. 4.
(Above) One of three impressive dragons carved into the stone and filled with gold
Fig. 5.
(Right) The back of the female figure’s robe, embroidered with roundels of flowers
Likewise, Qing edicts outlining female customs for rank badges, just as important as those issues for hairstyles, permitted wives of officials to wear their husband’s insignia, which this figure does not. The figures are stylised, not faithful representations of Qing dress and customs, and it is therefore possible that the artist indented the figures to represent a mandarin and his wife.
1 For figures of westerners, see David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West , vol. II (London & New York, 1978), pp. 666-7, figs. 689-90; for scholars and legendary soldiers see, for e.g., the British Museum (SLMisc.1174)
2 Christie’s, Unmistaken identity: a guide to the rank badges of ancient China (August 2022)
3 R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art: Textiles – Glass and
6.
(Below) The
Fig. 7.
(Right) The
Painting of Glass – Carvings in Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn – Carvings in Hardstones – Snuff Bottles – Inkcakes and Inkstones (2nd ed., rev. William Watson) (Oxford, 1981), p. 208, fig. 181
4 Thierry Audric, Chinese Reverse Glass Painting, 17201820: An Artistic Meeting Between China and the West (Bern, 2020), p. 56
Fig.
figures on the lacquer cabinet in the Library of the Ionides’ home, Buxted Park
figures illustrated by Jenyns in 1981, when part of the Ionides Collection
PAIR OF CHAIRS
c. 1720 - 25
England, London. Attributed to James Moore (1670-1726). Wood, gesso, gold, wool, silk.
H: 104.1 W: 81.3 D: 74.9 cm
Published:
An Inventory of the Household Furniture, Linen, China, Glass, Books, Wines and Effects of the Late Sir James Tylney Long Bart. deceased at Wanstead House in the County of Essex appraised Feb’y 23 1795 & Following Days, in the ‘Dressing Room’ of the ‘Crimson Bed Chamber’.
A. Denney, Burton Hall, privately published, 1950, two of the chairs in the Stone Drawing Room.
Provenance:
Sir Richard Child (1680 - 1750), 1st Viscount Castlemaine, later 1st Earl Tylney, twelve chairs for Wanstead House, Essex
By decent to Sir James Tylney-Long (1736 - 94), 7th Bt. and his wife Lady Catherine Windsor
Their daughter, Catherine, married William Pole-Tylney-LongWellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington
The set sold in pairs from Wanstead House, 10 June 1822 and 31 following days, seventeenth day, lots 23 and 27, the present chairs, acquired by ‘Lane’ for £27.6 and £26.15.6, the remaining eight acquired by Philip John Miles for Leigh Court, Somerset Given to William, 6th Baron Monson (d. 1862) by ‘Anna’ Wakelin for Burton Hall, possibly mid-1850s; by descent until sold 2015 Private Collection: West Coast, USA
The interest these chairs hold is difficult to overstate, forming as they did part of the original furnishings of the great, and now lost, Wanstead House, Essex. Built in the second decade of the eighteenth century (1713-7), the house heralded the advent in Britain of a new architectural style, as the latter did a new sense of national identiy of a nation formed only a few years earlier in 1707. 1
The house, designed by Colen Campbell, would become an emblem of the Neo-Palladian style, thanks to its publication in Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-25), which in turn became an embodiment of an age of reason, governed by notions of calm, order and harmony, as was the architectural style,
which was a work of reason unlike the sensuous (and Catholic) baroque.
The present chairs, in their grand, early Neo-Palladian style, are characteristic of the manner in which new palaces such as Wanstead were furnished in the first half of the eighteenth century. They are defined by bold scrolling arms and four cabriole legs, each of which beautifully drawn and headed by an ‘Indian’ mask, an exotic motif with perhaps some coincidental reference to the founder of the family forntune, Josiah Child’s business in the east, and a feature that appears on number of James Moore commissions.2
Fig. 1.
(Left) William Havell, 1815, pastoral view of Wanstead House
Undoubtedly the most arresting aspect of the chairs, however, is the needlework upholstery, certianly original to the chairs, which is vibrantly sewn in red and blue with tulips and other floral motifs, and which was originally trimmed with silver-gilt Arras-lace, which would have been more costly than the chairs themselves.
1 Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711, 1st ed.)
2 For seat and table furniture for the Duke of Chandos for Cannons and the Marquess of Hartington for Chatsworth with similar masks, see A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 17151740 (Woodbridge, 2009) p. 169, pl. 4:51; p. 212, pl. 5:25
Fig. 2.
(Left) Thomas Leeson Scrase Rowbotham, The Drawing Room, Leigh Court, Bristol, c.1840, watercolor on paper, one of the chairs in situ
Fig. 3.
(Above left) The cabriole legs are headed by Indian masks with stylised acanthus
Fig. 4.
(Above) A chair in profile, showing the bodly shapes scroll arms and the superb drawing of the form
4. PUNCH BOWL
Provenance: The Collection of Henry Moog, Atlanta, USA
c. 1780 - 84 China. Porcelain,
H: 18 D: 36.5 cm
Punch bowls depicting the hongs of Canton provide a vivid picture of the famous eighteenth-century waterfront, a vision of perhaps the most important export trade in history which, since the destruction of the waterfron in 1856, remains largely lost to us, save for its depiction in other media such as oil and gouache painting. More than this, they have become iconic pieces of Chinese export art, as the embodiment of a long history in China of porcelain production, the envy of the world, and the desire of westerners to return home with piece of this tradition and exotic culture. As a result, examples of these bowls are to be found in important private and museum collections around the world. 1
The present example can be situated in the narrative of the trade quite precisely. A bowl in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusets is dated 1779-85. Discussing the bowl, William R. Sargent points to the yellow Imperial Austrian flag depicting a double-headed eagle, also painted on the present example, which the hong flew only between 1779 and 1787. 2 Further, the American flag, not depicted on this bowl, appeared in scenes from 1784 following the visit in the following year of the first American ship, The Empress of
Fig. 1.
(Above) The architecture of the hongs, European in style with grand colonnades and terraces, reflecting the wealth of the trading companies
China captained by John Green. From a composition perspective, we also find that from 1765 to 1780 a panelled and hatched design was used, while after this a visual narrative of continuous scenes was introduced, exemplified by this bowl, which can therefore be dated to the period 1780-84.
The present bowl is a exceedingly fine example, with the emals surviving in a remarkable state of preservation and the porcelain with only a fine firing hairline extending from the rim (12.5cm) and one minute nick, now restord, to the rim. Examples in the institutional collections around the
world are not, on the whole, in such fine and mint condition.
The bowl is beautifully painted. The architecture represents an idiosyncratic belnd of European styles interpreted in a Chinese manner. The flags flown are, in turn, those of the French (white, pre-Revolution), Imperial Austrians, Swedish, British, Dutch and Danish. The interior is painted with a central floral basket encircled with a border of further floral
motifs all beneath a green and gilt husk band. The bowl stands on a tapered foot rising to rounded sides.
Fig. 2.
(Below) Merchants gather on the cobbled waterfront, meeting traders arriving in junks
1 For comparable museum examples, see The Peabody Museum, Essex, Massachusetts, USA (E81404); The Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA (ac. no. 234613); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (object no. 1973.167); The Franks Collection at The British Museum, London, UK (Franks.746.+), illus. R.L. Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China (New York, 1925), pl. LXX, fig. 3; The U.S. Department of State, Washington DC, USA (ac. no. RR-1965.0004.3); The Royal Collection, London, UK (RCIN 35287), illus. John Ayers, Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen , vol. II (London, 2017), pp. 420-1, no. 1046; Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA (object no. 2023-4); The Winterthur Museum, Delaware, USA (four examples), illus. Ronald W. Fuchs II and David S. Howard, Made in China (Winterthur, 2005), pp. 138-139, cat. no. 88; Hong Kong Maritime Museum, illus.
Libby Lai-Pik Chan and Nina Lai-Na Wan, The Dragon and The Eagle: American Traders in China , vol. I (Hong Kong, 2018), pp. 138-139, cat. no. 2.2; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, illus. exhib. cat. Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire and the Chinese Art Trade , p. 7; further examples, see David S. Howard, A Tale of Three Cities: Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong (London, 1997), p. 51, no. 46; Daniel Nadler, China to Order: Focusing on the XIXth Century and Surveying Polychrome Export Porcelain Produced During the Qing Dynasty 1644- 1908 (Paris, 2001), pp. 46-9, figs, 22-6; John Goldsmith Phillips, China-Trade Porcelain - An Account of its Historical Background, Manufacture, and Decoration and a Study of the Helena Woolworth McCann Collection (New York, 1956), pp. 14-15, fig. 8
2 William R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts, 2012), p. 435, cat. no. 239
Fig. 6.
(Opposite) One of the most intruiguing and vibrant characteristics of bowls such as these - the purple water
Fig. 6.
(Above) Interior of the bowl, with flowers and a band or rococo-style decoration to the rim
MODELS OF SITTING BOYS
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722)
China.
Porcelain, overglaze famille verte enamels.
H: 16 W: 10 cm
The depiction of young boys in Chinese art is traditionally associated with the wish for many sons. The present pair of figures are exceptionally well modelled. The cheerful boys appear in communion with one another. The enamels are painted over a white glaze and have a translucent, washed quality.
6. SILK PANELS
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1735 - 95), c. 1750 - 75
China, Canton.
Silk, gouache paint, oak.
Unframed H: 129 W: 209 cm
Framed H: 139.7 W: 219.8 cm
Compare: Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of The China Trade (Woodbridge, 1991), p. 161, col. pl. 49
Provenance:
Private Collection: Brandenburg, Germany, early 20 th century
The Chinese export oil paintings of landscape and garden scenes produced during the last quarter of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, and prized today by collectors, have their origins in panels such as these, painted in gouache on silk and paper in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. 1
Such panels foregrounded the use of western perspective in Chinese painting - the European convention of fixed-point perspective, a single vanishing point - represented here by the steel blue mountains on the distant horizon. This principle would underpin the composition of the oil paintings of c. 1790-1830 depicting landscape and court scenes and the four seasons by figures such as Spoilum and Fatqua.
The paintings of the Canton waterfront show this western influence, but, as Iside Carbone has commented, maintain
their Chinese character with delicate painted detail and a sweeping panoramic view in the manner of Chinese scroll painting, inherited from the preceding generation of panels of the present type in which this tradition was preserved. At the same time, the present paintings exhibit a freedom of expression and lack of a constrained ‘style’ that was to become entrenched in these paintings made for the western market. 1
Despite the importance of these panels, surviving examples are exceedingly scarce. An example is illustrated in The Dec-
Fig. 1.
(Above) The first of the two panels, showing a great pine tree in the foreground gently waving in the breeze
Fig. 2.
(Right) The steel blue mountains on the horizon draw the viewer into the scenes
orative Arts of The China Trade (Woodbridge, 1991) (Fig. 4.) and described by the author as ‘this very rare panel’. 2 Discovered in England, it suggests that panels of this type may have been made for export, as part of longer series to decorate whole rooms. The close stylistic and compositional resemblance between the present pair and the illustrated example suggest the possibility of a common workshop.
The panels are delicately painted with mellow, washed col -
ours on a weaved canvas. The two compositions are characterised by senses of restfulness and tranquility.
1 Iside Carbone, ‘Glimpses of China Through the Export Watercolours of the 18th-19th Centuries’ (MPhil thesis, SOAS, London, 2002), pp. 25-31
2 Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of The China Trade (Woodbridge, 1991), p. 156
Fig. 3.
(Below) The second of the panels, with a large pavillion beside towering trees and a waterway with bridges
Fig. 4.
(Right) The ‘very rare panel’ identical in style and technique to the present pair, illustrated by Crossman (1991)
7. PALANQUIN OR NORIMONO
Edo Period (1615 - 1868), 18th - 19 th century Japan.
Black, gold maki-e, wood, gilt copper, paint, paper, textile.
H: 121 W: 85 L: 128 (455) cm
Provenance:
Made for the wedding of a member of Mizuno clan, possibly Mizuno Tadaaki (1771-1814), his son Mizuno Tadakuni (1794-1851) or his son Mizuno Tadakiyo (1833-84)
Property of an old French family, by whom acquired in the early twentieth century
The palanquin, or norimono (‘thing to ride’), was commissioned to carry the bride of a daimyō , the shogun class of warrior lord, in the wedding procession.
The procession of the bride, travelling in the norimono carried by six men, to the groom’s residence displayed the wealth and power of the families to be joined in marriage. She was accompanied her dowry of furniture, embroidered clothing, paintings, screens and heirlooms all, like the norimono , elaborately and richly executed. Chief among the maki-e boxes was that filled with hundreds of hand painted shells of which each had only one true matching other half, a symbol of the married couple.
Like the trousseau of furniture and boxes lacquered to match the palanquin, the surface of the norimono was created with the Japanese technique of maki-e , where fine gold powder is sprinkled onto areas of wet lacquer. The maki-e , meaning ‘sprinkled painting’, depicts a crest amongst arabesque designs of peonies, môn and karakusa (‘winding plant’), a symbol of eternity and prosperity within a Japanese family.
The interior is upholstered with embroidered silk and painted with outdoor scenes of blossoming cherry trees and soaring red-crowned cranes, symbolising good fortune and longevity. The carriage is substantially enriched with gilt-copper mounts, shaped and finely chiselled with leafy sprays.
Fig. 1.
(Left) Detail of the carriage side, showing the shuttered sliding door richly lacquered and mounted
Repeated profusely throughout the design in both gold and copper is the sawa crest of an omodaka (threeleaf arrowhead) with water in a stream below (two wavy lines), the device of Mizuno clan, for whom this palanquin was made. The Mizuno clan was founded in the fifteenth century, during the tumultuous period of the Sengoku civil wars, and rose to significant terrioral power in the sixteenth. The clan was at its most prominent during the period when this palanquin was made and it was likely commissioned for the weddings of either Mizuno Tadaaki (1771-1814), his son Mizuno Tadakuni (1794-1851) or his son Mizuno Tadakiyo (1833-84).
Fig. 2.
(Below) The large Mizuno crest is proudly borne and peonies are richly created of raised layers of gold
Fig. 3.
(Right) The crest is also reproduced in the gilt-copper mounts
Fig. 5.
(Left) The cabin, luxuriously appointed, rich with textiles and painted wallpapers
Tadakiyo was a prominent daimyō and senior official during the Bakumatsu period. Under Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 12 th shogun, his father Mizuno Tadakuni virtually controlled the government, but following the failure of his Tenpō Reforms and his forced retirement and exile, Tadakiyo took the reins as daimyō in 1845. After his father’s pardon in 1851, Tadakiyo’s fortunes improved, receiving the posts of Jisha-bugyō (Commissioner of Shrine and Temples) and wakadoshiyori (Junior Councillor) in the shogunate. In 1862, he became a Rōjū in the service of Shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi, involved in the modernisation of Japan’s military.
In form and decoration this wedding palanquin is typical of those made for daimyō families of high status during the
Edo period (1615-1868). The present example is closely comparable to the norimono in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum, for a time on loan to the Metropolitan Mu-
Fig. 6.
(Above) The end of the carriage is boldly mounted
Fig. 7.
(Right) Mizuno Tadakiyo, photograph, unknow artist, c. 1870s
seum of Art, New York, (SL.7.2019.27.1a–h), commissioned in 1856 to transport Atsu-hime (1836–1883), wife of the 13 th Tokugawa shogun, Iesada, and to the example in the V&A Museum (Accession No. 48-1874), made for the marriage in 1857 of Kiihime, adopted daughter of Iesada, to Hosokawa Naritatsu. 1 It is a culturally important object, symbolising the final days of the ‘ancien régime’, monarchical government and traditional way of life in Japan.
1 Further examples in the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (no. 01165), the Museum of Art, Rhode Island (no. 2004.113), Musée national de la voiture, Compiègne, France (CMV 77)
Fig. 8.
(Below) The palanquin in the Smithsonian (SL.7.2019.27.1a–h)
Fig. 9.
(Right) The beam housing; no element is left unenriched
The Collection of Mary and Jay Carlisle, New York, USA
The Edith and Stuart Cary Welch Collection
This iconic form, a beautiful and very elegant creation of the Ming period, is covered in a thick, hard orange-red lacquer. The design which has been incised into the surface is filled with coloured lacquers ( diao tian or tianqi ) of green, brown and black and finally outlined in gold, accentuating the motifs and, as Michel Beurdeley has commented, giving ‘a refinement and brilliance to the whole’. 1
Furniture created in this technique was prized considerably more highly by contemporaries than ones simply of lacquer, and surviving examples of this quality and scale are rare. An example of the same technique and model is part of the Robert Rousset Collection in Musée Guimet, Paris. 2 Another
is in the Palace Museum, Beijing. 3
This table was formerly in the collection of the distinguished curator and collector of Indian and Islamic Art, Stuart Cary Welch, admired as much for his joie de vivre as for the brilliance of his pioneering writings on the subject.
1 Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture , trans. Katherine Watson (Tokyo, New York & San Francisco, 1979), p. 107
2 Ibid., pp. 107, 113, figs. 146, 154
3 The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties , vol. I (Hong Kong, 2002), pp. 252-3, fig. 289
Fig. 1.
(Above) Birds dart in mid flight and perch atop rocks, amongst trees and sprays of leaves and chrysanthemum blooms
Fig. 2.
(Right) Stuart Cary Welch, left, with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the Asia Society, New York, 1982
Fig. 3.
(Right) A large feathered bird is the centre of the composition on the table top
Lacquer
CHANDELIER
c. 1710 - 15
England, London
Wood, gold, metal.
H: 104 D: 91.5 cm
Publications: Ronald Phillips Ltd., Catalogue (London, 2006), p. 220
Provenance:
Redburn Antiques, London, 1 April 1971 (inv. no. 27A)
The Collection of Doris Duke, Christie’s, New York, 15 April 2005, lot 145, USD 102,000
Ronald Phillips Ltd., London
Albany, An Important Private Collection, Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 2023, lot 31, GBP 120,650
English giltwood chandeliers of this period and quality are exceedingly rare.
The present example is analogous to a set of six supplied for the Queen’s Gallery at Kensington Palace (Fig. 2.), likely by royal cabinet-makers James Moore and John Gumley. Remaining at the Palace until the late nineteenth century, after which three were acquired by Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane for Brympton d’Evercy, Somerset and then sold in 1956, one of the chandeliers is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (W.28-1959), on loan to Kensington Palace. 1
A further pair, also attributed to Moore and Gumley, was supplied for the State Apartments at Holme Lacy, Herefordshire. One chandelier sold at Christie’s on 21 April 1995, lot 243 ($715,000) and now hangs in the Kirtlington Park dining room installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1995.141).
Another exceptional giltwood chandelier, also in the V&A (416:1 to 10-1882), though of c. 1740 and attributed to William Kent, bears stylistic relation to the present example, being a developed Palladian form of the present Baroque design, though sharing design elements with the earlier model,
Fig. 1.
(Left) William Henry Pyne, Kensington Palace, The Queen’s Gallery (London, 1819), showing four of the set of six giltwood chandeliers in situ
such as an acorn finial.2 A chandelier of the same period, attributed to Henry Flitcroft and Matthias Lock, originally supplied to St. Giles House, formed part of the collection of Ann and Gordon Getty and sold Christie’s, New York, 20 Oct 2022 lot 45, USD 441,000.
A final related giltwood chandelier, of the same period as the present example and likewise attributable to Moore, is in the King’s Eating Room in Hampton Court Palace Eating Room in Hampton Court Palace (RCIN 1018).
The design of the chandelier and the small English group of which it is part derives from the arabesque forms of
the Louis XIV and Régence periods. Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel illustrate analogous French chandeliers in Vergoldete Bronzen, including a set of four by André-Charles Boulle in the Bibliothèque Mazarine that relates closely to the present chandelier.3 Another Boulle gilt-bronze example is in the V&A (965-1882).
Figures such as Daniel Marot, a Huguenot designer and religious émigré, brought the style to English makers in London. He published designs for chandeliers in this style in his Nouveau Livre d’Orfevrie Inventé par Marot, Architecte du Roy […] in 1701-3 (Fig. 3.), which English makers interpreted with the purity, restraint and
Fig. 2.
(Right) The scrolling arms each laden with an acanthus leaf; the gilt-metal nozzles and pans worked with scrolls, foliage and eagles
(Left) Daniel Marot, Nouveaux Livre d’Orfevrerie Inventé Par Marot Architecte du Roy fait avec Previllege des États Generax des Provinces Unie, 1701-3
Fig. 4.
(Below) One of the six chandeliers supplied to Kensington Palace, now in the V&A, London (W.28-1959)
(Bottom) The wyvern soaring atop the chandelier, with magnificent wigns, scaled body and winding tail
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
refinement demanded by English taste. French models were executed in gilt-bronze whereas English chandeliers were made in giltwood and appear to survive in fewer numbers than their counterparts across the Channel.
The magnificent wyvern surmounting the chandelier is likely an heraldic device. Wyvers are associated with numerous families, but the most notable is that of Herbert, of which the most prominent members during this period were William, 2nd Marquess of Powis (1665-1745) and Thomas, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733), for whom the chandelier may have been made.
The richness of the chandelier is represented in its later history
of ownership. From the early 1970s until 2005 the chandelier was in the collection of Doris Duke (1912-1993), dubbed from the day she was born ‘the richest girl in the world’, being the heiress of her father’s business empire. She went on to lead a colourful life of philanthropy, adventure and art collecting.
1 D. Fitzgerald, Georgian Furniture (London, 1969), no. 17
2 Victoria and Albert Museum, Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), No. 38
3 Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen: Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus (Munich, 1986), vol I, p. 54, fig. 1.6.10
Fig. 5.
(Right) The chandelier photographed in the drawing room at Duke Farms, Doris’ home in New Jersey
MODEL OF A WOLF
Qing Dynasty, 18th century
China.
Porcelain, yellow, brown and black glazes .
H: 41 cm
Exhibited:
Berlin, Chinesische Kunst, Preußische Akademie der Künste, 10 January - 2 April 1929 (above left)
Published:
Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, 1929, p. 348, fig. 948; mentioned and described in the Meisterwerke Chinesische Kunst, as part of a summary of the above exhibition, no. 138
Jakob Goldschmidt, Berlin, later New York, sold 1938
Winston Guest, New York, by whom sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 2 December 1967, lot 53 (above right)
John Dorrance, Pennsylvania, sold 1997
GROUP OF FOUR FIGURES OF TWO LADIES AND TWO BOYS
Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng (1722 - 35)Qianlong Period (1736 - 95), c. 1730 - 40
China, Jingdezhen.
Porcelain, overglaze famille rose enamels.
H: 106 cm
Provenance: Private Collection of the Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse, since early 20 th century
As H. Bräutigam commented, the phoenetic rebus ‘harmonious and peacefully united’ can be expressed either by the attribute of the lotus (he 荷, lian 蓮), meaning peacefully united, or by the demonstration of a vase (ping), meaning peace (ping’an), harmony. With this combination of meaning, expressed by such expensive porcelain sculptures, Bräutigam suggested that such figures as these must have been made in connection with an aristocratic marriage.1
The figure of the boy (Fig. 1. & 2.) is profusely decorated with lotus flowers issuing winding leafy stems with white and brickred blooms. Indeed, though figures such as these are laden with symbolic motifs of diverse meaning and wide application, the Chinese name for the lotus rootstalk (ou, 藕) sounds like the
Chinese word for ‘married couple’ (ou, 偶).2 And the Chinese word for lotus (he, 荷) is a homophone with the Chinese word for harmony (he, 和).
Boys were long employed as lucky charms for a harmonious married life and as helpful spirits for the production of male offspring. Greatly prized in a family, they were precious and closely protected, given at just three months old a lock (suo) of gold to wear around their neck to secure them to their family. Similarly, boys younger than sixteen wore bracelets made of nails from old coffins to deter evil spirits.3 The lobes of the present boy figures are also pierced, ready for earrings, as the pair formerly in the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Collection feature earrings, which were worn by boys to delude evil spirits,
Fig. 2.
(Left) The reverse side of the figure of the boy
Fig. 1.
(Far left) One of the boy figures,
Famille Rose
Fig. 3.
(Left) The other boy figure
Fig. 4.
(Above) The dresses of the two female figures, decorated with peonies, blossom and ribbons in rich colours
Famille Rose Figures
Fig. 5.
(Above) The backs of the ladies’ dresses, similarly painted in luscious enamels
Famille Rose
who were thought to look to injure male, but not female, children.4
The connection between these figures and marriage and family can be further secured. Another word for lotus, lian, sounds like the Chinese word for ‘continuous’ or ‘successive’. This refers to the wish for many children.5 In the same way, the boy figures each wear a phoenix (feng) decorated in the five colors of the cardinal virtues - benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge and sincerity - all worthy aspirations in a boy.6
The marital and familial symbolism of the boy figures is only enhanced by their female companions, each of whom is
decorated with symbols of auspicious meaning. Abounding between the ribbons of their dresses is plum blossom, whose five petals refer to the Five Blessings’ (wufu, 五福): long life, wealth, health, virtue, and a peaceful death. Most importantly, though, the lower blue-turquoise portion of each robe bears a lily flower, baihe, which owing to similar pronunciation, can be interpreted to mean harmony and unity (hehe, 和合), and thus serves as a wedding symbol. Baihe is also part of the proverb bainian haohe (百年好合), which means “happy union for one hundred years.”7 Brightly colored lilies, as the flowers here are orange, also represent passionate love.
This symbolism is carried through in the plinth bases, which
each prominently features two openwork roundels representing the ‘sapeca’ (zhu) or gianwen, the Chinese symbol of wealth, securing material endowment of the male offspring.8 Beside these sections is the blue flower of the morning glory, symbolising marital bliss, love, affection and longing and which is also associated with a tale of two lovers who could only meet once a year. Lavish financial circumstances are also suggested by peony blossoms mudan and rosettes of the chrysanthemum on a hatched floral ground. The well-filled bag decorated with peony in front of the body of the boy is meant to protect the material goods, securing his fertility and the family line.9
The present set of four models is part of a small group of fig-
ures of this type that is preserved in private and institutional collections around the world.
A figure of a boy and another of lady practically identical in decoration are illustrated in Objets d’Art Et d’Ameublement, Porcelaines De Chine (1914), pl. 104 (Fig. 6.), published by the important leading dealer Galerie Gorges Petit of Rue de Sèze.
A further comparable famille rose lady and boy pair from the collection of R. Bennett is illustrated in Gorer and Blacker’s definitive early study, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstones, vol. II (1911), pl. 229.
Famille Rose Figures 56
Two famille verte figures of boys are in the Palace Museum in Gotha, Germany and were published in the exhibition catalogue Schätze Chinas aus Museen der DDR, eds. Herbert Bräutigam and Arne Eggebrecht, at the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim 8 April - 15 July 1990, nos. 224-5.
Another boy and lady pair is in the collection of the Lady Lever Gallery in Liverpool, England and were illustrated by R. L. Hobson in his famous Catalogue (1928), pls. 75-6.
A figure of a boy (missing its base) was included in the prestigious 1997 London exhibition A Tale of Three Cities: Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong and published in the accompanying catalogue by David S. Howard (p. 135, fig. 171), where the
author described the figure, identical in general conception and modelling to the present examples, as ‘an exceptional example in both size and quality.’ This example was ultimately purchased (Sotheby’s, 17 November 1999, lot 982, USD 188,917) for the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachussets and illustrated by William R. Sargent in Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts, 2012), p. 459-61, cat. no. 255
A boy pair was formerly in the Collection of Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, and was illustrated in Mary Lobo Antunes, Chinese Porcelain: Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Collection (Lisbon, 2000), p. 31, no. 9, and Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, Porcelena Chinesa: De Presente Régio a Produto Commercial (Lisbon,
1998), p. 318-19, no. 124.
1 Schätze Chinas aus Museen der DDR, eds. H. Bräutigam, A. Eggebrecht, the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim 8 April - 15 July 1990, nos. 224-5
2 Smithsonian Museum, Washington D. C., Common Chinese Symbols, June 2020, accessed 17/01/2025
3 W. R. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts, 2012), p. 461
4 Mary Lobo Antunes, Chinese Porcelain: Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Collection (Lisbon, 2000), p. 31, no. 9; Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, Porcelena Chinesa: De Presente Régio a Produto Commercial (Lisbon, 1998), p. 318-19, no. 124;
Sargent (2012), p. 461
5 Smithsonian Museum, Washington D. C., Common Chinese Symbols, June 2020, accessed 17/01/2025
6 Sotheby’s, Art at Auction, 1988-89 (London, 1989), p. 133; Sargent (2012), p. 461
7 Smithsonian Museum, Washington D. C., Common Chinese Symbols, June 2020, accessed 17/01/2025
(Right) A pair essentially identical in decoration, illustrated by Petit in 1914
Edo Period (1603 - 1868), 17th - 18th century
Japan.
Gold, balck and red maki-e
Compare:
For a similar incence box, see J. Earle, Japanese Lacquer: The Denys Eyre Bower Collection (2000), p. 15, no. 4
BOXES
Edo Period (1603 - 1868), 17th - 18th century
Japan.
Gold usuniku-takamaki-e on kin-fundame (black, red).
H: 17 cm
Compare:
Fan-shaped boxes formerly in the collection of Marie Antoinette (1755 - 93), see M. Kopplin, Les Laques du Japon: Collections de Marie-Antoinette (Paris, 2001), especially pp. 126-7, no. 28; pp. 128-9, no. 29; pp. 132-3, no. 31; pp. 138-9, no. 33
Edo Period (1603 - 1868), 17th - 18th century
Japan.
Gold, balck and red maki-e
PAIR OF MODELS OF GEESE
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736 - 95)
China.
Procelain, enamel (white, brown, yellow).
H: 62.8 64.8 cm
Published:
Victor Rienaecker, ‘Fantasies of Chinese Ceramic Art’, Country Life Annual, 1956, pl. 3
Provenance:
The Ionides Collection, Buxted Park, Oxford
The Property of the late The Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides, Sotheby’s, 18 February 1964, lot 273
Fig. 1.
(Left) The beautifully drawn neck of the left-hand figure and the feathers created with fine strokes in the surface
This pair of porcelain figures of geese, made during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, stand 62.8 and 64.8 cm tall. The bodies are covered in a white glaze and the bills and feet in contrasting orange-brown and yellow-green glazes.
The figures are beautifully and realistically modelled, possessed of a true sense of life and animation, from the bright and alert eyes and the elegantly postured necks, to the wings held closely to the bodies, the lively upturning tails and the stout legs and feet. The feathery texture of the surface is beautifully created, likely largely accomplished in the mould but with the fine
incised detail suggesting the individual feathers added when the clay was hard but still pliable. The bulbous protrusion on the forehead, which is particular to the Chinese goose, of each bird is coated in a translucent green-yellow enamel, has run in firing.
Wild geese symbolize conjugal devotion in Chinese culture, as they are said to mate for life and fly in pairs.1 The animal (ge) is also the symbol of the third degree in the civil rank of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The present two birds, in their graceful majesty, represent this twin message of fidelity and service.
Porcelain
Fig. 2.
(Above) The plumage, with variation in relief and free carved detail to create the feathers
Freestanding geese among eighteenth-century Chinese porcelain birds are rare but the present figures are an extreme rarity.
Such figures were very difficult to produce. A comparable bird (Fig. 3.) is in the Copeland Collection. The figure was illustrated in the catalogue produced by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem where the author notes the ‘over a dozen stilt marks on the underside of the thick-walled body, beneath the breast and under the tail feathers, attest[ing] to the difficult of firing so massive a piece [61cm].’2 Another figure of a goose, though smaller, is illustrated by Howard and Ayers (1978) and described as ‘a rare model’.3
The present figures were illustrated (Fig. 4.) by Victor Rienaecker in a 1956 article for Country Life Annual and identified for particular comment, being described as ‘probably unique’.4
The author also noted the craftsman’s ‘remarkable...observation of these birds and the skill with which certain technical difficulties have been surmounted’.5
1 C. A. S. Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives (New York, 1978), p. 216-17
2 W. R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures (Salem, 1991), cat. no. 119, p. 238-9
3 David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, vol. 2 (London and New York, 1978), no. 611, p. 587
4 Victor Rienaecker, ‘Fantasies of Chinese Ceramic Art’, Country Life Annual (1956), pp. 60-1, fig. 3
5 Ibid., p. 61
Fig. 4.
(Left) The left-hand goose of the present pair illustrated in the 1956 Country Life article by Rienaecker
Fig. 3.
(Far left) The Copeland goose, of similar form and decoration, with
Fig. 5.
(Right) The left-hand goose of the present pair, shown in the same profile as in 1956
TOMB FIGURES
Ming Dynasty, 16th century.
China.
Stoneware, sancai glaze, paint.
H: 105 cm
Note:
The results of Re.S.Artes thermoluminescence tests numbers
R 145324C-2 and R 145324C-3, 29 February 2024, support the dating of these figures
Provenance:
A. & J. Speelman, London
Private Collection: France
The combination of cream, amber and emerald glazes, known as sancai – literally ‘three colours’ – first appeared during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a high point in Chinese civilization and golden age of artistic output and cosmopolitan culture. The period saw the production of stonewares decorated in the vibrant glaze which is primarily associated with funerary goods, most especially tomb figures.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when the present figures were made, the glaze was used primarily to decorate tiles
for roofs, which in Chinese culture were believed to be platforms for communication between the mortal and spirit worlds.
Fine quality sancai wares from this period remain rare, however. Architectural ornaments are generally of rougher quality and the surviving tomb figures often modest in size and execution. Thus, the present figures are an exceptional example of their type, magnificent in decorated and scale and modelled with unusual accomplishment with flowing robes and delicately-handled but boldly expressive features.
Fig. 1.
(Left) The female figure, superbly modelled, hold a bowl, possibly for washing
Fig. 2.
(Right) The male figure, with robes flowing over his arm, holds a cloth for drying the hands and face
17. MIRROR
c. 1665 - 85
England. Wood, silver, glass.
H: 163.8 W: 106.7 cm
Provenance:
Standish Robert Gage Prendergast Vereker, 7th
Viscount Gort, MC, KStJ (1888-1975), Hamsterley Hall, County Durham, England
By descent to the Hon. Catherine Mary Wass, OBE (1942-2021)
Private Collection: California, USA
Mirrors of this quality, finish and monumental scale are scarce. Among the few comparable examples is the mirror bearing the arms of Gough of Old Fallings Hall, Staffordshire, for Sir Henry Gough (1649-1724) in the Victoria & Albert Museum and another incorporating the arms of Fisher of Packington, Warwickshire, in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool.1
Silvering would have given the mirror the appearance of solid silver, reflecting the richness of Restoration style and associating it with contemporary mirrors executed in the metal, such as those at Knole, Kent and in the Royal Collection, each supplied with a table and stands en suite to form a triad.2
Carved with putti the present mirror derives from French baroque designs of the second half of the seventeenth century, exemplified by a Parisian engraving of c. 1670.3 The mirror reflects therefore the ‘rampant Francophalia’ that the king’s taste engendered amongst his innermost circle of courtiers, who in turn expressed this most lavishly at their country houses, influencing style across the country.4
In their English context, however, these motifs were perhaps uniquely symbolic. As society salved the scars of Protectorate privations and underwent serious economic recession in the 1660s, which reached their nadir when London endured
1.
(Left) Live de Miroirs, Tables et Guéridons, c. 1670, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Accession No. 33.84.1-4)
Fig. 2.
(Above) Standish Robert Gage Prendergast Vereker, Bassano Ltd., whole-plate glass negative, 30 April 1921 (NPG x120960)
the Great Plague (1665), the Great Fire (1666) and a second Anglo-Dutch war (1665-67), the mirror would represent the change in the nation’s fortunes that soon followed.5 Economic growth began at the end of the decade, developing into a boom lasting into the 1690s, on the tide of a woollen cloth trade finding markets abroad and a flourishing re-export business. This mirror represents this rejuvenation and prosperity. Berries, branches, flowers and a cornucopia symbolise growth and plenty, while ribbons, swags and putti playing instruments capture the mood and sounds of celebration.
The mirror itself is a product of this increasing wealth and a
Fig.
marker of the accelerating pace of concomitant technological advancement, with plate of this size being not just expensive but highly difficult to produce, and previously impossible.
The mirror was in the collection of connoisseur Standish Robert Gage Prendergast Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort, that also included the cabinet-on-stand attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (77.DA.1).6
Standish Vereker housed his collections at Hamsterley Hall, built largely in c. 1770 by Henry Swinburne in eighteenth-century gothic style, with a crenelated roof line, ogival windows and a fanciful bay. But Standish stamped his mark on the place, adding salvaged Jacobean elements from Beaudesert (recently demolished in 1935 and including a cupola to serve as a summer house), an early eighteenth-century baroque doorcase and shell canopy and a Gothic pinnacle, removed from the earlier Houses of Parliament during restoration works.7
The mirror was a fitting part of his collection. A celebration of Restoration England - even carved with a sunflower, the symbol of monarchical loyalty famously deployed by Van Dyck - the mirror reflects the same service to crown and country shown by his family for centuries, beginning with his ancestor and contemporary of the mirror, John Vereker, who was one of the gallant gentlemen, afterwards styled ‘the 49 officers’, deprived of his commission by Cromwell for their royalist sentiments, but rewarded with lands by the new king, Charles II, for his loyalty to the crown.8
His descendant, Charles Vereker (1768-1842), Colonel of the Limerick Militia and later the 2nd Viscount, was renowned for his important victory over the French at Killala Bay, County Sligo in 1798. He inherited the viscounty from his maternal uncle, the heir of the Prendergasts of Tipperary and County Galway, themselves descended from Maurice, Lord of Prendergast in Pembrokeshire, one of the Norman knights who sailed to Ireland with Strongbow in 1179.9
Fig. 3.
(Right) A cresting of putti, swags and a cornucopia; the frame richly carved in high relief with ribbons and leaves
The 5th Viscount, who married a daughter and co-heiress of R. S. Surtees (1805-1864), the famous author who wrote his novels at Hamsterley, was in the Royal Artillery, advancing to captain in the 4th Brigade, South Irish Division. He was the father of Standish and his elder brother John, the 6th Viscount, one of the most decorated soldiers of the Great War, mentioned in dispatches nine times and known to his soldiers as Tiger Gort.
He received the Victoria Cross in September 1918 for his actions at Canal du Nord, the official citation noting his ‘most conspicuous bravery’, ‘devotion to duty’ and ‘utter disregard of personal safety’ in no uncertain terms.10 In 1937, Gort was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff and in 1939 named Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. After action on Malta where he was governor he received his Field Marshal’s baton from King George VI in 1943.11
Standish himself served in the Great War, being wounded three times and earning a Military Cross, and in the Second, under his brother, becoming an honorary colonel in 1948. He and his wife donated generously throughout their lives, giving Bunratty Castle to the Irish people in 1954 and an important collection of Renaissance paintings to the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1973, also completing restoration of Surtees House in Newcastle.
When he died, the mirror passed to his brother’s granddaughter, The Hon. Catherine Mary ‘Kate’ Wass, OBE. Kate was a direct ancestor of George III via his third son Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and his mistress, the Drury Lane actress Mrs Jordan (1761-1816), who lived together for twenty years at Bushy House. Kate’s father, William Philip Sidney, 1st Viscount De L’Isle, was himself a war hero himself, receiving the Victoria Cross for his defence at Anzio in 1944.
Fig. 4.
(Left) Hamsterley Hall, the front door with view southwards, including the pinnacle removed from the original Houses of Pariament
Fig. 5.
(Right)
1 Victoria & Albert Museum, Accession No. W.37-1949; illustrated Schiffer, Herbert F., The Mirror Book (New York, 1983), pp. 40-1, fig. 61, and other examples pp. 36-43
2 For Knole, see National Trust, 130034 & 130014.1/2, and those in the Royal Collection, see RCIN 35300
3 P. Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration (New Haven, 1978), pp. 232-3, pl. 218; c.f. mirror formerly in the Vernon Collection at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire (NT 652738), and another of highly comparable design, Schiffer (1983), pp. 42-3, fig. 64, though of silver and gold leaf
4 A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714 From Charles II to Queen Anne (Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 17-20
5 Ibid., pp. 26-7; with ‘public matters in a most sad condition’
and ‘all sober men…fearful of the ruin of the whole Kingdom’, on New Year’s Eve in 1666 Samuel Pepys saw no prospect of improvement, beseeching ‘good God deliver us’.
6 C. Hussey, ‘Hamsterley Hall, Durham: The Seat of the Hon. S. R. Vereker, M. C.’, Country Life, 21st October 1939, pp. 418-22
7 ‘Hamsterley Hall - Halls & Manors of County Durham & The Borders’, Sunniside Local History Society, no. 4
8 Brian de Breffny, ‘The Vereker Family’, Irish Ancestor, Vol. V., No. 2 (1973), pp. 69-75
9 Hussey, Country Life (1939), p. 418
10 ‘No. 30466’. The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 January 1918, pp. 557–8
11 c.f. also Colville, J. R., Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal the Viscount Gort (London, 1972)
A roundcheeked putto nestled amongst foliage playing a musical instrument
MODEL OF A DEER
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736 - 95)
China.
Procelain, enamel (white, brown, black), gold.
L: 20.4 cm
In Chinese culture, the deer is believed to live to a very great age, and it is thus a symbol long life. It is said to be the only animal able to find the sacred plant of immmortality.
THE HONGS OF CANTON
1800 China.
Gouache on paper, wood, gold.
H: 26 W: 42 cm
‘In fact the artist was Chinese, using largely western principles of perspective. The composition is far removed from the traditions of classical Chinese art; and yet, with its head-on presentation and overall sharpeness of detail, it is hardly typical of Western painting either. This is a Chinese ‘export painting’...’
- Patrick Conner
Published:
P. Conner, The Hongs of Canton: Western merchants in South China 1700-1900 (London, 2009). fig. 0.1
Provenance:
Martyn Gregory, Hong Kong, 14th May 1989
c.
20. PAIR OF GEESE
Edo Period (1603 - 1868), 18th - 19 th century
Japan. Bronze.
H: 84 85 cm
D: 58 55 cm
Provenance: Charlie Chaplin, Manoir de Ban, Geneva, Switzerland
Distinguished Private Collection of Japanese Art: London, UK
Gracefully modelled in fine feathered detail, with each bill slightly raised and open in mid-call, the eyes bright and full of life, the present pair is an evocative expression of this symbolism, a representation of the communication of enduring love, devotion and the notion that family harmony is a cornerstone of ordered society.
The geese are modelled in beautiful detail, with the individual feathers clearly suggested by the texturing on the bodies, which also imitates the overlapping and arrangement of plumage. The necks, legs and feet are carefully observed with real realism
and proportion. The technique conveys both the softness of the feathers and the strength of the birds’ legs and bodies.
The goose also has literary significance, often employed in scholarly tracts and poetry to evoke elegance, grace and intellectualism. Geese migrating in formation are frequently associated with the arrival of spring and the renewal of life, representing hope and a fresh start. This is largely due to their seasonal appearances.
The depiction of geese in art is not only a celebration of these
Fig. 1.
(Above left) The unfurled wings of the geese meeting in the middle of the back
Fig. 2.
(Above) The tips of the wings, meeting in an area of raised feathers
qualities but a reflection of the complex interplay between nature, society and the individual. Geese occupy a significant place in the artistic and symbolic landscape embodying the ideals and aspirations of a rich and enduring cultural tradition.
The geese were formerly in the collection of Charlie Chaplin, gracing the corridoors of his Geneva lakehouse. They are symbolic of his characteristically ecclectic and playful, cheerful taste.
Fig. 5.
(Above) The dappled horse moving with agitation as the groom sweeps the floor
Fig. 5.
(Above) The dappled horse moving with agitation as the groom sweeps the floor
MODEL OF A MONKEY
China.
Porcelain, enamel (grey, orange), gold.
H: 17 cm
The monkey is seated with legs apart one hand scratching under his chin, the other resting on his right knee. The face has been painted with an iron red wash, the eyes gilded creating an intense wild expression with open mouth revealing teeth. The monkey’s body has been decorated with thin grisaille strokes imitating hair.
Monkey figures appear with great regularity in export Dehua wares, perhaps reflecting the popularity of monkeys as pets on ships travelling to Europe from China. Like the parrot, the monkey was an exotic pet that found its way to Europe in the sixteenth century via the maritime trade routes, and both spices became popular subjects for artists and collectors. Augustus the Strong, for instance, owned fifteen examples of Dehua monkeys by 1721.
A related figure with the same decoration is illustrated in Michael Cohen and William Motley, Mandarin and Menagerie: Chinese and Japanese Export Ceramic Figures, Vol. 1, The James E. Sowell Collection (2008), cat. no. 14.4
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736 - 95)
PAIR OF PIER MIRRORS
c. 1720 - 25
England, London. Attributed to John Belchier. Wood, gold, glass.
H: 218.5 W: 87.3 cm
Illustrated: G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840 (Oxford 1987); one mirror illustrated p. 67, fig. 4
Provenance:
Possibly supplied to Francis Godolphin (1678-1766), 2nd Earl of Godolphin for Godolphin House, Cornwall or Stable Yard, St. James’ Palace, London and by descent
Christie’s London, 7 April 1983, lot 51 (GBP 60,000)
Acquired by Henry Francis Dupont, Winterthur Museum, Delaware, reputedly for his private collection
Christie’s, New York, 2 February 1991, lot 208 (USD 143,000)
Christie’s New York, 22 April 1999, Lot 143
Private Collection: East Coast, USA
The present mirrors compare closely with the two pier glasses supplied by John Belchier (1699-1753) to Erddig Hall in Wales on 15th July 1723 and 6th June 1726 for the two best bedchambers for £36 and £50.1
The earlier mirror is the same stepped rectangular form as the present mirrors. The 1726 mirror is nearly identical, with bold central scrolls and matching eagles’ heads. The cost of £50 for this single mirror provides an idea of the significant price the present pair will have commanded when they were supplied in the early eighteenth century.
The mirrors compare with Belchier’s attributed work, namely a mirror in the Untermyer Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and another formerly with Gerald Hochschild, which both feature a stepped plate, scrolls and eagles’ heads.2
Belchier was an important cabinet-maker of the early eighteenth century, described in the London Evening Post on his death as ‘for many years past a very eminent cabinetmaker’.2 Erddig Hall is his most significant known commission. In addition to the mirrors, he likely supplied the State Bed in 1720 which features eagles’ heads on the tester, prefiguring those on the 1726 pier glass and on the present mirrors.
The dolphin naiant in the pediments is almost certainly an heraldic device, indicating that the mirrors were made for a patron. Such a dolphin is borne by a number of families including the Kennedys of Culzean and Cassilis and the Courtenays of Powderham, Devon, but on account of their prominence at court in the early eighteenth century the most likely candidates are perhaps the Godolphins of Rialton and Helston, of whom a dolphin has been the symbol since at least the sixteenth century, as a reference to their name and landholding in Cornwall.
A dolphin naiant as it appears in the mirrors’ crests is first seen in the arms of the Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1645-1712) - who under Queen Anne assumed such prominence alongside his chief ally John Churchill, the future
victor of Blenheim and 1st Duke of Marlborough, that the two were named ‘the Duumvirs’ - and the mirror carvings relate closely to the pair of carved, parcel gilt and painted wooden dolphins naiant (NT 169408) thought to have originally served as helmet crests for Sir William Godolphin (c.1518-70).
That patron in question may have been the 1st Earl’s son, Francis Godolphin (1678-1766), 2nd Earl of Godolphin, an MP and Peer, privy councillor, Lord of the Bedchamber, Groom of the Stole and Governor of the Scilly Islands. Eminent in social
Fig. 1.
(Above) The well carved dolphin naiant in the pediment of one of the mirrors
Fig. 2.
(Above right) The arms of ‘The Right Honourable Francis Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin...’
Fig. 3.
(Right) The painted wood dolphins (NT 169408) thought to have been worn by Sir William Godolphin in the sixteenth
circles, Francis will have been familiar with the most accomplished and fashionable London cabinet-makers of the day. Further, his uncle, Dr Henry Godolphin, was Dean of St. Paul’s where Belchier supplied window glass and his workshop was located, and it is possible that it was through this connection that Godolphin commissioned the present mirrors.
Francis married daughter of Churchill, Lady Henrietta, who was notorious for her attachment to dramatist William Congreve, the suspected father of her fifth child, Lady Mary, whom Francis nonetheless accepted as his own. He was one of the founding governors of the Foundling Hospital, an orphanage charity created to tackle the problem of child abandonment. He also had the distinction of owning one of the founding thoroughbred sires, the Godolphin Arabian.
It is said that he read only two works, Burnet’s History of my own Time and Cibber’s Apology. When he had perused them throughout, he began them again.4 Francis died at his house in St James’ on 17th January 1766 and was buried in Kensington Church, just down the road from the Rolleston Gallery.
1 NT 1146960-1; Bowett, A., Early Georgian Furniture 17151740 (Woodbridge, 2009) p. 292, pls. 6:50-1
2 Accession No. 46.116; Synge, Mallett’s Great English Furniture, 1991, p. 89, fig. 94
3 G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660 - 1840 (Leeds, 1986), p. 59
4 George Clement Boase, ‘Godolphin, Francis’, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, eds. Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee (London, 1890)
Fig. 5.
(Left) Pier glass supplied to Erddig in 1726, with identical central scrolls, falling foliate carving on the sides and at the corners and eagle’s head decoration; identical in overall conception (NT 1146961)
Fig. 4.
(Far left) Pier glass supplied to Erddig in 1723, with the same form and stepped upper frame (NT 1146960)
PAIR OF QUAILS
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736 - 95)
China.
Champlevé enamel.
H: 10.3 13.3 cm
Quails have been a subject of Chinese art for a thoushand years. The Chinese word for quail is anchun (鹌鹑), pronounced ‘an chun’. The first character, an (鹌), is a homonym of the word an (安), meaning ‘peace’ or ‘safety’.
Provenance:
Private Collection: East Coast, USA
Compare:
A pair identical in form and decoration sold Christie’s, London, 23 May 2024, lot 73, GBP 113,400
WU SONG DEFEATING THE TIGER
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722)
China.
Porcelain, overglaze famille verte enamels.
W: 21.5 cm
Provenance: Bernheimer, Munich, acquired 21 April 1989
Seated astride a prone tiger, turned to the left, one arm holding the tiger and the other brandishing a spear, the figure of the man is dressed in a colourful coat leaving his arms and chest bare, his face dramatically painted in vivid colours. The tiger is subdued with its head raised and mouth open, his fur in vibrant tones of yellow with black striations.
Compare with a famille verte figure of the Luohan Bhadra riding a tiger, formerly in the collection of Léon Fould (18391924), illustrated in Henri D’Ardenne de Tizac, Les Animaux dans l’Art Chinois (Paris, 1922), pl. XLVII. This later entered the collection of Jacob Goldschmidt (1882-1955), Berlin and
1.
was exhibited at the exhibition Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, 1929, p. 348, cat. no. 946, and subsequently sold in Christie’s London, 29 June 1938, lot 40.
Wu Song (武松), also known as Second Brother Wu (武二郎), is a legendary hero recounted since the thirteenth century, and one of the well known fictional characters in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classic Novels in Chinese literature.
On the way, he passes by an inn near Ridge, which puts out a banner that reads ‘After Three Bowls, Do Not Cross the Ridge’, and goes in for a break. The innkeeper explains that the inn’s
Fig.
(Left) It is rare for such a figure to be painted with a mask, this one of vibrant colours
home-brewed wine is so strong that customers would get drunk after having three bowls and could not cross the ridge ahead. Still sober after three bowls, Wu Song demands more.
Nearing the ridge, Wu Song spots an official notice warning of a tiger ahead. As he moves on, he starts to feel the effects of the wine. So, he takes a nap on a big rock. As he falls asleep, the
tiger leaps out from the woods, shocking him out of his stupor.
After narrowly dodging the tiger’s first three charges, Wu Song attempts to fight back but breaks his staff on a tree. Unarmed, he summons all his might and manages to pin the tiger face down with his arms. He then rains blows on its head using his bare fists. After punching the tiger unconscious, he picks up his broken staff and whacks the tiger till he is sure it is dead.
Fig. 2.
(Above) The tiger is boldly modelled, with large bulging eyes and a large mouth
BOY AND BUFFALO GROUP
INCENSE BURNER
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722)
China.
Porcelain, famille verte enamels.
L: 25.4 cm
Provenance:
Samuel Craft Davis (1871-1940) Collection, St. Louis, Missouri
William Bigler (1908-1979) and Alita Davis (1905-1988) Weaver
Collection, Greenwich, Connecticut
Nathaniel Pryor (1933-2018) and Alita Davis Weaver (1941-2023)
Reed Collection, Jupiter Island, Florida, and thence by descent within the family
The theme of boys playing with animals is one of the most enduring and charming motifs of Chinese art. Many animals, whether real or mythical, have an auspicious meaning or are believed to protect the boy.1
The water buffalo (shui niu), one of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, symbolises not only strength and patience, but also springtime and agriculture, as the animal used to pull the ploughshare in ricefields throughout China for millenia. It thus also stands for prosperity and hard work.2
A herd-boy riding a buffalo was a popular subject in Song dynasty paintings. This subject matter depicts the natural, bucolic and carefree life of the countryside, far away from ceremony and social obligation. The painting by Li Tang (Fig. 1.) evokes this rural tranquility. A combination of washed and sharp brushstrokes captures both the buffalo’s form and spirit, which demonstrates palpable affection between it and its offspring following closely behind and boy rider, lying down its
back.3 Depicted in this manner, the buffalo was also a symbol of benevolence and submissiveness, as it was able to be obedient to a small child. After work, the boy would take the buffalo to bathe (Fig. 3.) before returning home on the back of the animal, relaxed and often playing a flute.3
Porcelain models of buffalo and boy rider groups were exhibited in Berlin, Chinesische Kunst, in 1929.4 One of these, from the R. Bennett Collection, was illustrated by Gorer and Blacker in 1911 (Fig. 2.).5 Another example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ((93.3.292a, b) (Fig. 4.).
1 Feng-Chun Ma, A Thousand Years of Hundred Boys in Chinese Art, 10th - 20th Century (London, 2024), p. 24
2 Idem.
3 Idem.
4 Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, 1929, p. 347
5 Edgar Gorer & J. F. Blacker, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstones, vol. I (1911), pl. 96
Fig. 1.
(Above) Li Tang (c. 1049 - 1130), handscroll, National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Fig. 2.
(Right) Example of a buffalo and rider, Lao Tzǔ, illustrated by Gorer and Blacker (1911)
Fig. 3.
(Below) Herd-boys and buffalo by the water, Qian Huian, 1907, the Met, (1986.267.81)
Fig. 4.
(Above, below right) Buffalo and herd-boy group in the Met, New York (93.3.292a, b)
THE SHEPHERDESS AND FALCONER
c. 1760 - 80
China, Canton (glass, Europe; frame, England).
Paint, glass, gold, wood.
H: 102 W: 145 cm
Published:
T. Audric, Chinese Reverse Glass Painting 1720-1820 (Lausanne, 2020); illustrated and discussed, pp. 141, 183, cat. no. 114
Provenance:
Private Collection: London, UK
Private Collection: London, UK
The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, April 2003
Private Collection: New York, USA
The present mirror painting is a superlative example of the Shepherdess genre, produced in the third quarter of the eighteenth century by a group of artists likely belonging to a common workshop, located on the waterfront at Canton.
A young lady sits on a flat rock on a riverbank, at the foot of a wutong entwined by a vine of peonies. She is listening to a child who is sitting next to her playing the flute. A falconer, concealed behind the tree, pensively watches the lady, with a
(Left) The shepherdess and the sheep are painted in exquisite detail, characteristic of the best reverse-painted mirrors
finger to his smiling mouth, the bird perching on his hand. The lady wears the typical costume of a wide-brimmed veiled hat with flowers and an embroidered orange silk tunic over a silk muslin dress. A white scarf, tied at the front, covers her shoulders. In her left hand she is holding a long stick while her right hand rests on a basket of flowers with a tall handle. A small dog jumps at her feet beside a ewe and her lamb. Two other sheep frolic at the foot of the wutong. Along the river with ducks and boats is a substantial settlement, with pagoda and walkways.
Fig. 1.
In this painting the shepherdess is accompanied, perhaps unbeknownst to her, by a falconer. The significance of this surreptitious figure is not entirely clear, but the voyeuristic quality of the scene suggests an entertainment, possibly taken from a Chinese poem or play, that would have been amusing to Chinese and western audiences alike.
A falconer features in an identical manner in mirror paintings in the Lady lever Gallery and the Roger Keverne and (formerly) Horlick collections, alongside which the present mirror is illustrated in Thierry Audric’s important recent study.1
Painted mirrors imported from China, transported generally in black lacquer frames, were often re-housed in fashionable giltwood surrounds on their arrival in Europe and England. It is decidedly rarer for a mirror painting to be incorporated into a large overmantel frame with border glass, nearly all the plates of which in the present mirror are the original.
1 See Audric (2020): Lady Lever, pp. 182-3, cat. nos. 118-9; Roger Keverne, pp. 182-3, cat. nos. 115-6; Horlick, pp. 182-3, cat. no. 113
Fig. 2.
(Right) The faces of the falconer and flute player are bright and clear, with a luminous quality
YUTO AND COVER
Edo Period (1603 - 1868), c. 1620
Japan.
Gold and silver maki-e on black lacquer.
H: 18 D: 32 cm
An example of this style and lacquer technique can be found on a basin dated to 1620 formerly in the Musée de la Marine of the Louvre Paris, and now in the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1946.47.115 D)
A yuto in negoro lacquer is illustrated in East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1991), fig. 82. Pouring vessels such as this were used in Zen temples.
Provenance:
Private Collection: London, UK
PAIR OF CHAIRS
c. 1756
England, London.
Mahogany, silk, brass.
H: 100.3 W: 74.3 D: 64.8 cm
Published:
A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture (1968), figs. 173-5
N. Carew, ‘Montacute House, Somerset’, Connoisseur Year Book (1952), p. 17, No. IX, the eight in dining room
A. Oswald, ‘Montacute Re-visited—II’, Country Life, 27
October 1955, p. 962, fig. 6
G. Wills, English Furniture, 1760-1900 (1971), p. 18
N. Goodison and R. Kern, Hotspur: Eighty Years of Antique Dealing (London, 2004), pp. 136-7, fig. 8
L. Wood, ‘Tied Up In Knots: Three Centuries of the Ribbon-Back Chair,’ Furniture History (2015), vol. 51, fig. 3
Exhibited:
Montacute House, Somerset, 1948-1979
Provenance:
Part of the set of eight chairs most likely acquired by Thomas Harvard for Barrington Court, Somerset, c. 1756
Removed to Dillington House, Somerset, early 19 th century
With R.L. Harrington, Ltd.
With Hotspur Ltd., London, UK
Private Collection, London, UK
‘We lunched at Judge Jeffrey’s house in Dorchester and at 2.30 reached Dillington Park, a delightful Tudor house, almost entirely rebuilt about 1810 in imitation of Barrington Court by Pennethorne. It has a cosy family-house air, most sympathetic. Present owner a young Mrs. Cameron. Her mother, Mrs. Vaughn-Lee, living with her. They offer us practically anything we like for Montacute, and E. and I selected straight away a number of things, including a fine set of ribbon-back eighteenth-century dining-room chairs.’ 1
James Lees-Milne is not the only one to have appreciated the charm of these chairs. The ‘ribbon back’ chair, named for the elaborate fluttering ribbon motifs incorporated into the design, is one of the most recognised designs published in Chippendale’s pattern book, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director and is often viewed as synonymous with his style.
In fact, Chippendale was so pleased with his designs in his first edition of the Director for ‘three Ribband-back Chairs’, on the third of which are the present chairs based, that he wrote in his
commentary on the plate (XVI), ‘if I may speak without vanity’, they are ‘the best I have ever seen (or perhaps have ever been made)’.2
As, however, Chippendale duly notes - as he does throughout his Director, shamelessly advertising his own skill - their ‘excellent effect’ depends on being ‘properly handled in execution’.3
The present chairs have certainly been carved by such a ‘skillful workman’, though Chippendale’s workshop is not necessarily their author. Closely related designs also feature on the trade cards (Fig. 5.) of Chippendale’s contemporaries William Henshaw, cabinet-maker and upholsterer and subscriber to the Director, St Paul’s Church Yard (1754 - 73) and William Jellicoe, upholsterer, appraiser and undertaker of Fleet Street (1760 - 81), who Lucy Wood suggests are likely candidates to have made the chairs.4
The chairs belong to a suite of eight that can be traced to Dillington House in Somerset, which was acquired by the Hanning
Fig. 1.
(Above) Barrington Court in the 1890s
Fig. 2.
(Above right) The right-hand pattern on Plate XVI of the Director (1754), on which the present chairs are based
Ribbon-Back Chairs
Fig. 3.
(Left) Detail of a chair back, showing the close relation to Pl. XVI of the Director (1754)
family in the early nineteenth century and ‘Gothicized’ by John Lee Lee (Hanning) (1802-74) in the 1830s. Lucy Wood suggests the suite was most likely acquired by John Lee Lee’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Harvard, to furnish nearby Barrington Court, which he purchased in 1756.2 Barrington remained in the Hanning family but as Dillington became their primary residence, the chairs were likely moved there before Barrington was rented out and ultimately sold before 1858.5 Inventories of Dillington in 1874 and 1882 record ‘6 Carved Mahogany Antique Chairs’ in the Drawing Room, and ‘2 Carved Mahogany Chairs’ in the Dining Room, constituting the suite.
The suite remained at Dillington and passed by inheritance to
Elizabeth Cameron (nee Vaughn-Lee). It was at this stage that they were loaned, with James Lees-Milne acting as intermediary, to the National Trust for Montacute House from 19481979, with an old loan inventory card recording them as a set of eight and a photograph capturing them in situ (Fig. 4).6
Hotspur later acquired six from the suite and sold them in pairs. One pair entered the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld, Washington D. C. (sold Christie’s London, 7 July 1988, lot 77, GBP £82,500) and was subsequently in the collection of Ann and Gordon Getty (sold Christie’s New York, 23 October 2022, lot 554, USD $214,200). A second pair is now in the Indianapolis Museum of Arts [81.375, 81.376]. The third is offered here.
Fig. 4. (Left) Five of the chairs photographed in Montacute for Country Life in 1955
1 J. L. Milne, Caves of Ice, Diaries: 1946 & 1947 (Trowbridge, 1983), pp. 127-8
2 Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (London, 1754), p. 8
3 Idem.
4 L. Wood, ‘Tied Up In Knots: Three Centuries of the Ribbon-Back Chair,’ Furniture History (2015), vol. 51, pp. 241-3
5 Ibid., pp.
6 A. Baggs & R. Bush, A History of the County of Somerset, v. 4 (London, 1978), pp. 113-121; Arthur Oswald, ‘Montacute Re-visited—II’, Country Life, 27 October 1955, p. 962, fig. 6
Fig. 5. (Right) British Museum, London (Heal,28.90), trade card of William Henshaw, a ribbon-back chair at the centre
HORSE STABLE
PAIR OF SIX-FOLD BYŌBU (SCREENS)
Momoyama (1573 - 1615) - Edo Period (1603 - 1868), c. 1600 - 50
Japan.
Ink, colour, gold and gofun on paper, silk brocade, lacquer.
H: 171.5 W: 360 (60) cm
Provenance: On loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, September 1989 - September 1991
Private Collection: Europe
‘There was a stable above wherein there was no more than five or six horses; but it was a stable only in name because it was so clean and well kept that it seemed rather to be a fine chamber for the diversion of nobles than a place to lodge horses.’ 1
Horse stables were centres of social life in Japan in this period. As places for the exhibition of fine horses - the ownership of which was crucial to the status of a samurai or feudal lord ( daimyo ) - they became places of reception and entertainment, of leisure and relaxation. Quite apart from their nature in the western world, they were meticulously
A group of noble visitors enjoying a board game, an energetic chestnut bucking behind them
maintained, luxuriously furnished residences.
As Luis Frois (1532-97), the Portuguese Catholic missionary, also wrote in his 1585 commentary Striking Contrasts in the Customs of Europe and Japan , ‘In the homes of European nobility guests are first welcomed in the living quarters; in Japan their first reception takes place in the stables...Our stables are always behind or in the lower part of the house; in Japan, they are built at the front of the house.’ 2
The floors were not of earth but of sugi , a fragrant cedar
Fig. 2.
A sleeping guest, resting on the raised green tatami matting
Fig. 1.
used for constructing Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and other sacred and honoured places. This was in accordance with the symbolic significance in Japanese culture of the horse itself, which by this time had been long valued for its mysterious ability to communicate with the Shinto gods and to positively affect the weather. 3
The stable also enabled a proud samurai warrior class to exhibit its martial prowess, the essential importance and function of the stable, housing these horses which though not as beautiful or great in stature as their European counterparts according to western accounts, were in the words of Englishman John Saris, ‘well trust…and very full of mettle, in my opinion, farre excelling the Spanish Jennet in pride and stomacke.’ 4
This character is reflected in the portraits of the horses, each of which is captured with an animated life and energy. In the uppermost screen the horses are more active: one horse vigorously buckles, another rears, and a further with dappled coat moves with agitation beside a groom sweeping the stable floor; the others are poised with inquisitive postures and alert, searching expressions.
The lower screen is overall more languid, though with the exception of the prancing steed: a horse bows to eat from a low trough, and at the opposite end another is curled up on a rush matt; the two central ‘strawed’ horses appear more static and, especially the skewbald horse, restfu l.
Fig. 3.
(Right) The palomino horse moving with agitation as the groom sweeps the floor beneath; the attractive gilt-metal tack hangs on the post
Fróis and Akio Okada’s accounts shed light on the differing styles of mane grooming seen on the screens: some are shown with nogami , meaning ‘field’ or ‘wild hair’, essentially the same free style of mane preferred by Europeans; others with the karihoshi or ‘shaved priest’ style, cut and tied at intervals with rice straw, worn by six of the twelve horses. 5 As Richard Danford comments, this straw did not have the same humble connotations it did in Europe; it was auspicious for its association with plenty. 6
Restrained by two lines leading from their bridle to stakes on the stalls, some of the muscular bodies of the horses, rendered with careful modulated linework and subtle shading, are suspended by thick ropes around their bellies ( harakeke ) to help support the weight of the horses as they sleep stand -
ing up. 7 The animals appear essentially in profile, and with the characteristic short legs and long torso of native Japanese horses.
The screens reveal the stables to be places of social interaction and gathering, the foregrounds of each being filled with figurative depictions of informal genre activities. Relaxing on tatami mats in a raised area adjoining the stalls, samurai gentleman discuss falconry, monks and noblemen attended by pages play go, sugoroku and shogi (meaning ‘military leader’s board game’), a falconer preens two birds, and grooms
Fig. 4.
(Below) The two ‘strawed’ horses, the left-hand skewbald, the right dapple grey
can be seen working or at rest among and around the stalls. Animals too contribute to the feeling of activity: small hounds roam freely on both the ground and the tatami matting, and a pet monkey, believed to hold the power to abate equine illnesses, is also present with a young gentleman tamer. These stables scenes are significant in showing how people from different walks of life, as well as the interaction of social class, were brought together through their interest in horses and gaming.
Fig. 7.
(Far right) Two dogs moving freely about the stables
Fig. 6.
(Right) A young gentleman tamer with his monkey, tied at the neck with a rope
Fig. 5.
(Above) A mightly black horse stamps while a groom attends; two gentleman falconers are in the foreground
Fig. 9.
(Left) A noble group of two men and a woman play a board game
Horse
Fig. 8.
(Above) A dun horse eats from a trough, gentlemen game, and birds perch
The present screens are nearly identical to the those in the Cleveland Museum (1934.373) and were likely based on this slightly earlier pair, which date to the late Muromachi period (1392–1573). The two pairs of screens share identical stall scenes and often entire panels; differences come principally in the ordering, combination and placement of these. The groupings of the visitors are also alike, a difference being the bifurcated tatami on the Cleveland.
The Cleveland screens have a band of misty cloud and gold leaf across the upper sections. Here the clouds are scalloped and applied in gold leaf, indicating the influence of later Momoyama taste for gold leaf and a showier decoration.
Fig. 10.
(Above) 1934.373.1, first of the pair of screens in the Cleveland Museum of Art
Fig. 11.
(Below) 1934.373.2, second of the Cleveland pair, showing identical portraits of the horses and panel scenes
Another related earlier pair of screens depicting a single stable is in the Tokyo National Museum (A-10139). A further is in the Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo. 8 The present screens have previously been on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago from 1989 - 91.
1 Michael Cooper, They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543-1640 (Michegan, 1965), p. 135
2 Richard K. Danford et al., The First European Description of Japan, 1585: A critical English-language edition of Striking Contrasts in the Customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S. J. (London, 2014), p. 167
3 Ibid., pp. 164, 170
4 Cooper, They Came to Japan (1965), pp. 143-4
5 Danford, First European Description of Japan , 1585 (2014), p. 164; Akio Okada, trans. And ed., Yoroppa-Bunka to Nihon-Bunka [European Culture and Japanes Culture] (Tokyo, 1965)
6 Idem.
7 Ibid., p. 169
8 Screen Paintings of the Muromachi Period: Kokka 100th Anniversary Exhibition (1989), cat. no. 35, pp. 106-7
Fig. 13. (Right) A magestic black horse, prancing powerfully against the rope harness
Fig. 12.
(Below) The present pair of six-fold screens showing their relation to the Cleveland
RECUMBENT BOYS
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722) China.
Porcelain, overglaze famille verte enamels.
W: 23 cm
The figures lie back supported by drum shaped pillows – each with the left knee bent up and the right arm tucked behind the head. One figure holds a piped musical instrument in the left hand, while the other holds a lotus stem – the leaf billowing out, above the body, in the form of a headrest. The boys’ shaven heads retain a tear shaped tuft of hair above each forehead, and their faces bear half smiles – the white glaze enlivened by the red of their lips. They wear brightly enamelled yellow coats decorated with clouds and iron red phoenix medallions – the baggy trousers with prunus branches on a white ground.
A standing boy of similar dress and decoration is to be found in ‘Mounted Oriental Porcelain’, The J Paul Getty Museum, California, 1982, pl. 7.
THE WINTER HUNT
Provenance: Private Collection: France.
c. 1800 - 25 China. Oil on canvas, wood, gold.
H: 66 W: 96 cm
This rare and finely executed pair of Chinese export oil paintings, depicting winter hunting scenes, may be attributed to Fatqua. Perhaps the most accomplished Cantonese export artist of the early nineteenth century, he is regarded for his ability to blend European artistic conventions with traditional Chinese themes, making his works highly desirable among Western collectors.
In the first painting, a fur clad noble holding a bow in his left. He is accompanied by his richly dressed family gathered near a tents pitched under the shelter of frost-covered trees. A returning hunter moves across the frozen landscape, carrying game birds in one hand. In the distance, a large encampment flying military banners lies before the crenalated wall of a fort.
In the pedant work, a richly dressed noble family stands on a bridge, while hunters traverse a rugged mountain path in the background, carrying spears and accompanied by attendants. The presence of a young boy and female figures, as in the first painting suggests that the hunt was not merely a sport but also a social occasion.
Fatqua’s distinctive artistic style is evident in the fine detailing of the figures, the subtle modeling of their faces and the rich treatment of their winter garments. Their robes are rendered with soft shading and delicate folds, demonstrating the artist’s skill in adapting Western chiaroscuro techniques. The barren trees, jagged rocks, and snow-covered paths are depicted with remarkable precision, creating a vivid sense of the season’s
cold, harsh beauty. The use of perspective, particularly in the receding landscape, reflects Fatqua’s ability to merge European linear perspective with traditional Chinese compositional approaches.
The theme of winter hunting holds deeper cultural significance, particularly in the context of the Qing dynasty. Hunting was an important pastime for the Manchu ruling elite, closely tied to their nomadic heritage and military traditions. The presence of well-dressed noble figures in these paintings suggests an aristocratic hunting party, appealing to Western collectors’ fascination with the customs of the Chinese elite.
The careful detailing of clothing, accessories and landscape
elements points to Fatqua’s renowned attention to refinement and luxury, making these paintings exceptional examples of Chinese export art.
Fatqua’s work is represented in major collections around the world, including the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The rarity of winter hunting as a subject in Chinese export painting, combined with the artist’s skillful execution, makes these works particularly significant. Their delicate balance of Chinese and European artistic traditions, as well as their fine preservation, mark them as outstanding examples of early nineteenth-century China Trade art.
PERSIMMON TREE IN BLOOM
Meiji Era (1868-1912), early 20 th century
Japan. Ando Jubei (signed).
Copper, moriage cloisonné enamel (musen), silver.
H: 35 cm
Compare:
For a similar vase by Ando Jubei, see Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley, eds., The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, vol. III Meiji no Takara, Treasure of Imperial Japan: Enamel (London, The Kibo Foundation, 1995), pl. 55
Published:
Art at Auction: The Year at Sotheby’s, 1981-82, p. 270 Gregory Irvine, Japanese Cloisonné Enamels: The Seven Treasures (London, V&A Museum, 2006), p. 124
‘The gardenias reveal themselves and stand out among the beautiful and fragrant flowers, they are clustered and hidden on the branches, the fragrance descended after the dew but came out nicely in the breeze, the leaves faintly retain the sound of stillness, the shadow of the moonlight recalls the dreamland, who makes the unscented flower as the companion, the begonias get the taste of the coolness of the Autumn, the last script of the retirement announcement in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Yu Minzhong.’
‘To hide in the deep mountains to get the cultivation, enjoy the peace and tranquillity in the mist and clouds in the twilight, the frosty fine leaves are pure, the dew dropped from the soft bushes, the flowers are fragrant and in fine appearance, removing the hairpin and the vibrant colour remained, the begonia should be in a deep sleep in the springtime, who needs to go out to compose great poems? Written in the South chamber at the beginning of April by Yu Minzhong.’
‘The beauty of the spring is the peach blossom, the heavenly fragrance is delicate, they look like they are laughing merrily in the sudden shift of showers and sunshine, and the half-opened flowers are enchanting as if a beauty uncovering her dainty lips and face in an elegant movement, the peonies are flirtatious in the flowery bushes. Written at the beginning of the summer of the Bingwu year by Yu Minzhong.’
PRICKET CANDLESTICKS
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662 - 1722)
China. Stoneware, sancai glaze.
H: 30 cm
Provenance: Private Collection: USA
DISHES
Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period (1722 - 35)
China, Jingdezhen.
Porcelain, famille rose enamels.
W: 38.5 cm
Compare an identical dish exhibited in Marchant & Son, Chinese Export Porcelain, (London, 2015), cat. no. 11, in addition to a group of plates and four larger dishes from the collection of Lord Margadale of Islay at Fonthill House, Wiltshire and sold at Christie’s London, 31st May 1965, lot 52.
Another pair is illustrated in G. C. Williamson, The Book of Famille Rose (London, 1927), pl. XLVII, and another was exhibited by Yu Chunming in the Nanchang University Museum Exhibition Jing Yan, 2012, cat. no. 20.
Provenance: Private Collection: France
1.
(Left) A nearly identical dish in the V&A, London, Room 136, Case 8, Shelf 6, no. 43
Fig.
FIGURE OF AN ATTENDANT
Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), 7th century
China. Limestone.
H: 66.5 cm
Published:
‘The Collectors: Of Ink, Clay, and Stone. C.C. Wang in His New York City Residence and Studio,’ Architectural Digest, New York, July 1983, p. 105
Annette L. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese art in the C. C. Wang Family Collection (Seattle & London, 1988), pl. 74
Provenance:
Tonying & Co., New York
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 15th April 1954, lot 338
Collection of Mrs M. Hasserman
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 1st-2nd June 1977, lot 376
J. J. Lally & Co., New York
The Collection of C. C. Wang
This figure is one of a group of nine excavated from an early Tang dynasty Imperial tomb found in the vicinity of Xianfu, (Xi’an), Shaanxi province. All raised on square or rectangular plinths, this feature is also found on four smaller stone figures, also from the Xi’an area, excavated from the tomb of Zheng Rentai, dated to 664 A.D., a satellite tomb of Zhaoling, the mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong in Liquan county.1
Tang limestone counterparts of pottery tomb figures are rare and only a handful of examples are known. Amongst the figures excavated in Shaanxi is a mourner (Fig. 1.), now in the National Gallery of Asian Art, Washington D. C. (Accession No. S1996.37), and a female attendant (Fig. 2.), perhaps most similar to the present example, sold on behalf of a New Jersey Museum at Christie’s New York, 25th March 1998, lot 432.
Other related figures include an attendant from the J. T. Tai Foundation. A figure of a musician, formerly in the collection of E. Wolf, was published by Ezkenazi Ltd. in Ancient Chinese Sculpture (London, 1978), cat. no. 3 and compared with an example in the Art Museum of Tokyo, exhibited at the International Exhibition in London, 1935-6 and widely published.2 A further stone head and body was illustrated by the Musée Guimet in Tang China: A Cosmopolitan Dynasty, nos. 17-8.
1 Cultural Relics Unearthed (Wenwu, 1972), p. 42, fig. 15 (3-4)
2 Masterpieces from Geijutsu Daigaku, Art Museum of Tokyo Art University (Tokyo, 1977), pl. 74; O. Sirén, Histoire des Arts Anciens de la Chine, vol. III, La Sculpture (Paris, 1930), pl. 88, c; S. Mizuno, Chinese Stone Sculpture (Tokyo, 1950), pl. XIV, no. 30; Tōyō bijutsu, vol. 3, (Tokyo, 1968), pl. 82
Fig. 2.
(Left) Figure of a female attendant from Shaanxi, formerly in a New Jersey Museum
Fig. 1.
(Far left) Figure of a male mourner in the National Gallery of Asian Art, Washington D. C. (No. S1996.37)
Limestone
Fig. 3.
(Left) The present figure, with a pouch on her left hip and an offering in her hands
POURING VESSEL FOR OIL
Ming Dynasty, Walni Period (1573 - 1620), c. 1590 - 1600
China, Jingdezhen.
Porcelain, underglaze cobalt-blue.
H: 18.8 D: 10.5 cm
Provenance: Jorge Welsh, Lisbon, Portugal
Private Collection: Lisbon, Portugal
Modelled in globular pomegranate form, this cruet or ewer is delicately painted with panels of ruyi heads, key fret, water plants, insects, bamboo shoots and sprays of blossoming flowers in contrasting shades of bright underglaze cobalt-blue. The spout has leaves boldly moulded in relief at its base and the tapering vase neck is painted with a proud bird perching atop a rock and ends in a six-point ‘pomegranate’ star. It was made for the Middle Eastern or European market, following earlier Islamic forms in metal.
This example is particularly elegant in shape and potted very finely, in contrast to thicker kendis. It is part of a special group of kraak pouring vessels that first appeared in the reign of Emperor Wanli, other examples of which are in the Franks Collection in the British Museum (no. OA F.1579), the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the F. Lught Collection in the Fondation Custodia,
Institut Néerlandais, to the latter of which the present example bears particular close relation in form and decoration.1
Further related examples can be found in the Princesshof in Leeuwarden (inv. no. 2501), the Groninger Museum in Groningen (inv. no 1960-57-B), the Bell Collection in the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto (inv. no. G99.1.7) and the Grandidier Collection in the Musée Guimet (inv. no. G.1005).2
In Chinese culture, the pomegranate (shi-liu) symbolises rejuvenation, abundance and a blessed future. Painted throughout with blooms and auspicious motifs, the ewer is also symbol of prosperity and good fortune.
1 Rinaldi, M., Kraak Porcelain: A Moment in the History of the Trade (London, 1989), pp. 177-9, esp. fig. 228
Kraak
Fig. 1.
(Left) The beautifully shaped globular form of the body
