A Transitional blue and white bottle vase, 17th Century.
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The bulbous body painted around the exterior in vivid blue with a continuous scene of an attendant holding a vase with three arrows before a dignitary followed by attendants carrying fans, all beneath a leafy scroll dividing the upper section painted with four sprays. Height 34,5 cm.
Restored by neck.
Provenance
Sotheby’s London, 6 November 2013, Lot 101.
An English private collection.
The Avalon Collection.
This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction.
Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.
Literature
A blue and white brush pot, circa 1635 – 1645, with similar decoration of a man carrying a vase with halberds or arrows, is illustrated in “ Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection”, Alexandria, 1990, Plate 42.
More information
The scene depicts an attendant carrying a vase with three “halberds” which is a homophone for “grade”. The vase with three halberds, is a rebus for rising within the bureaucracy three grades (lian sheng san ji) embodying the learning of every scholar official in imperial China.