DIMENSIONS

Height: 17 ½ inches

 

PROVENANCE

• Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 2000

• A.C.J. Wall, England

 

CATALOGUE NOTES

Rare famille verte porcelain baluster shaped vase, of fine rounded form, with short trumpet-shaped neck, broad shoulder, and tapering body ending in an expanding foot. The vase rests upon a short pedestal foot and has a slightly recessed underfoot. The body of the vase is decorated with a large continuous scene showing women dressed as warriors and officials holding court in a palace. Two of the women are depicted wearing obviously false beards. The gates to the palace are guarded by male attendants, each holding a halberd. As a Mandarin riding on a horse passes through the gate, one of the guards on the right hand side is shown nudging his fellow to attention. The scene takes place under a swirling cloud filled sky with the sun shown at its apogee. The scene is bordered at the back by tall, leafy trees and rockeries. The neck is decorated along the lip with a broad trefoil-edged pendent border decorated with Shou characters and peaches on a light green seeded ground with floral polka-dot-like decoration in green and blue. The decoration is all finely drawn in famille verte overglaze enamels upon a luminous white ground. The recessed underfoot bears double rings in its center drawn in underglaze cobalt blue.

 

The scene on this vase is almost certainly based upon an episode from the Yang Jia Jiang or the Generals of the Yang Family by Yiong Damu.