Rare Qing Dynasty enamel bowl set for auction in April
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China Daily, March 27, 2018
Chows says the choice of floral patterns suggests a possibility that the bowl was painted by Christian missionaries, who at the time served in the court and spread Western knowledge of science and art.
According to Chow, the combination of daffodils with roses, hibiscus and buttercups, Turk's cap lilies and poppies on the bowl exhibits more of a Western flair, while a classical Chinese manner favors flowers with auspicious implications, and they should be arranged in the order of seasons.
The bowl to be auctioned has been transited among major collectors.
It has been kept for 30 years by the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo, which was built in the 1960s to house and display the collection of Japanese petroleum entrepreneur Sazo Idemitsu (1885-1981).
Before entering Idemitsu Museum's storage, the bowl once belonged to Henry M. Knight. Chow says Knight was a discerning collector who from the 1930s assembled a major collection of Chinese ceramics and other works of art.
He says Knight focused mainly on porcelains of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties; he bought largely from the London-based antique firm Bluett & Sons, including the bowl which he acquired in 1938 and owned until his death in 1971.
Roger Bluett (1925-2000), an influential antique dealer whose grandfather co-founded Bluett & Sons, once estimated that Knight accumulated perhaps the "best" collection of 18th-century porcelain items in Europe.
Bluett wrote that Knight "was fond of telling how it was my late father who told him to buy 'Chinese taste' porcelains. Their time would come, my father used to say, and how right he was."
Another heirloom in the formal collection of Qing court is a scroll comprised of 10 mountain-and-water ink paintings by Qian Weicheng (1720-72), a high-ranking official during Qianlong's reign and also, a favorite painter of the emperor.
The colored scroll, titled Ten Auspicious Landscapes of Mount Taishan, is now in a private European collection and will also be auctioned by Sotheby's Hong Kong.
It depicts in each section a different view of the Tiantai Mountain in East China's Zhejiang province. Qian once served as the education commissioner in Zhejiang.
It boasts a varied brushwork and a mellow color scheme, according to Steven Zuo, head of Sotheby's classical Chinese paintings department.
He says people can see "the passion and dedication invested by Qian" in the scroll.
Qian presented the scroll as a gift to Emperor Qianlong, who himself appreciated classical ink paintings and Qian's artistic attainment, and who wrote on each landscape a poem.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)