A Dehua figure of Guanyin with a scroll, Ming dynasty, early 17th century, impressed He Chaozong mark within a double gourd

24 août 2017

A Dehua figure of Guanyin with a scroll, Ming dynasty, early 17th century, impressed He Chaozong mark within a double gourd

Lot 734. A Dehua figure of Guanyin with a scroll, Ming dynasty, early 17th century, impressed He Chaozong mark within a double gourd; 7 ¼ in. (18.4 cm.) high. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 137,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The Goddess of Mercy is shown seated on a mat with the right hand resting elegantly on the raised right knee and the left hand gently cradling a scroll. The figure wears a ruyi-shaped hair ornament tucked under the cowl, and a flower-shaped jewel on her chest, and a long robe falls in graceful folds around the body. The maker's mark, He Chaozong, is incised within a double gourd on the back and the glaze is of a warm ivory tone.

Provenance: Captain J. Meuldijk Collection, The Netherlands.

Note: Unlike the factories at Jingdezhen, porcelain production at Dehua was not under Imperial supervision; reign marks were therefore rarely used, and instead potters sometimes impressed their own seals or workshops marks. Some of these marked pieces have come to enjoy great prestige among collectors, most notably the works of He Chaozong. His Guanyin figures are graceful and serene, often with finely detailed attributes or seated on elaborately hollowed rockwork, and covered with a characteristic creamy rich glaze. Despite his renown, little is known about the potter, but modern scholarship now considers a late Ming dynasty/17th century date to be most likely.

A related He Chaozong-marked figure of Guanyin holding a scroll, and seated on a reed mat, without the cowl covering the hair, is illustrated by J. Ayers, Blanc de Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain, New York, 2002, inside cover and p. 83, no. 34. Another figure with both hands hidden within the folds of her long sleeves, also with a He Chaozong mark within a double-gourd, is illustrated by R. Blumenfield, Blanc de Chine: The Great Porcelain of Dehua, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 132, fig. A. Further related examples include one illustrated by P. J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine: The Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien, New York, 1969, pl. 143, fig. B, and the unmarked figure holding a scroll, dated to the late 17th-early 18th century, illustrated by C. J. A. Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and Qing Dynasties, London, 1997, p. 244, no. 280.

Sitting Guanyin with a role in hand, about 1675 - about 1724, Qing dynasty (1644-1912), Kangxi period (1662-1722)-Yongzheng period (1723-1735). Blanc de Chine porcelain. H 25.6 cm, foot: l 13.4 cm × b 10 cm; AK-RBK-15962 © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Christie's. Marchant: Nine Decades in Chinese Art, 14 September 2017, New York.