Strange Events
Imperial, Jingdezhen, 1862-1873
Height: 7.2 cm
Mouth/lip: ..5/1.8 cm
Stopper: glass carved with a coiled chi dragon; glass collar
Provenance:
Robert Hall, London, 2007
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4682.
Christie’s, New York, 16 March 2016, lot 405
Famille-rose enamels on colourless glaze on white porcelain; with a convex lip, slightly convex foot and convex footrim; painted on each main side with framed garden scenes with, on one side two scholars, one standing with a walking staff to the top of which are tied two rolled scrolls the other seated on a rock holding a further scroll, the sun seen beyond clouds above, and on the other with a scholar, a sword at his belt holding a flower aloft and dancing in front of a woman, also holding a flower, seated on a rock a bat flying above her, the narrow sides with an upside-down bat holding a tasselled, jewelled cord in its mouth suspending two of the Eight Buddhist Emblems, the twin fish and the eternal knot, the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script 大清同治年製 Da QingTongzhi nian zhi (‘Made during the Tongzhe period of the Qing dynasty’), the lip covered in gold enamel, the interior glazed.
