the cylindrical body painted in vibrant glossy enamels with a continuous scene of the Dragon Boat Festival, one dragon boat manned by twenty-four oarsmen and drummers racing across the green waters toward celebrants standing in front of a riverside mansion, a second dragon boat following close behind, spectators merrily watching from multi-storied buildings, the neck with a boatman in a landscape, the base with a double circle in underglaze blue, coll. no. 1498.

The Jie Rui Tang Collection.

Provenance: Christie's Paris, 22nd November 2005, lot 74.

Note: This vase belongs to a group of famille-verte porcelains which represent a new direction in porcelain painting. The theme of spectatorship and community engagement runs throughout, with figures naturalistically reacting to one another and actively responding to the events before them. The same elements are found in contemporaneous New Year pictures (nianhua), which circulated widely as woodblock prints and were a source of inspiration for ceramicists at Jingdezhen. The Dragon Boat Festival was a favorite subject for these prints, and possibly provided the basis for this vase and others of its type.

A larger famille-verte rouleau vase, also depicting the Dragon Boat Festival, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 14.40.85). A related vase, but in rouleau form and with women welcoming a phoenix, from J.T. Tai & Co. sold in these rooms, 22nd March 2011, lot 108.

Vase with Scene from the Dragon Boat Festival, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Kangxi period (1662–1722), late 17th–early 18th century. Porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware). H. 27 3/4 in. (70.5 cm). Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.85) © 2000–2018 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

From J.T. Tai & Co. A famille-verte rouleau vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722); height including mount 19 5/8 in., 49.8 cm. Sold for 62,500 USD at Sotheby's New York, 22nd March 2011, lot 108. Photo: Sothebys

Cf. my post: Famille-Verte Vases, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period from J.T. Tai & Co at Sotheby's Sotheby's New York, 22nd March 2011

Sotheby's. KANGXI: The Jie Rui Tang Collection, New York, 20 March 2018, 11:00 AM