A blue and white bottle vase, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period with apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark. Height 16 in., 40.8 cm. Photo Sotheby's

Provenance: S. Marchant & Son, London, 2002.

Note: Exquisitely drawn, the eight vistas, each within a differently shaped reserve represent pseudo templates of classical landscape painting. The vase provides an arrangement of such time-honored themes as a snow-filled winter scene, an autumn scene with geese flying south, a scholar’s moonlit retreat, a hill-top haven, and fishermen casting their nets. Each landscape differs from the other and is rendered with varying styles of brushwork and each serves as a reminder of the venerable practice of learning from the work of past masters. While not recalling specific masters, the paintings illustrate the concept of assimilation through practice. By imitating the motions necessary to recreate the style, the student metaphorically inhabits the hand of the master and thus the spirit of the artist himself. The refined sensibility of the vase conveyed through the restrained decoration and generous expanse of negative space elevates the form above functional decorative status. It is a luxury object to be admired, contemplated and a medium for inspiration.

The vase relates to another of the same form currently in the Jie Rui Tang Collection acquired at Sotheby’s New York, 21st September 2005, lot 87 painted with a pair of similarly reserved scenes but of Chang'e bestowing a sprig of osmanthus to a scholar and inscribed. Another related vase with a Chenghua mark is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 9, p. 13.

Sotheby's. Embracing Classic Chinese Culture: Kangxi Porcelain from the Jie Rui Tang Collection, New York, 14 march  2014