NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces Asian Art Week, a series of auctions, viewings, and events, from March 4-19. This season presents seven auctions featuring over 750 objects from 5,000 years of art spanning all epochs and categories of Asian art from Chinese archaic bronzes through Japanese and Korean art to modern and contemporary Indian painting.

Highlights include Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection led by The Luboshez Gong, an exceptional and highly important bronze ritual wine vessel and cover from the late Shang dynasty, 13th-12th century BC ($4,000,000-6,000,000). Also featured in the week of sales are important Gandharan sculptures from a private Japanese collection, including a magnificent 3rd to 4th-century gray schist figure of Buddha Shakyamuni ($1,500,000-2,500,000); a significant painting by the pioneer of Indian modernism Tyeb Mehta, titled Confidant and painted in 1962 ($600,000-800,000); an important and highly exhibited work by Katsushika Hokusai titled Mitate Asazuma bune (The Parody of Boat Asazuma) from the collection of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum ($400,000-500,000); an exceptionally rare huanghuali incense stand from the Yunwai Lou collection ($800,000-1,200,000) and Chinese works of art from the celebrated Junkunc collection. From rare huanghuali furniture to a collection of works by respected artist and teacher Benodebehari Mukherjee, treasures from every category of Asian art wait to be discovered.

Following the success of the September 2020 season, Chinese works of art sales on March 18-19 will be presented in New York and simultaneously in Hong Kong for increased phone bidding and streamed live on WeChat. Christie’s continues to leverage digital tools to extend access to key bidding areas and provide global audiences with opportunities to view auctions.

All works will be presented in an exhibition by appointment from March 12-18 at Christie’s New York.

ASIAN ART WEEK | LIVE AUCTION OVERVIEW:
Japanese and Korean Art
16 March 2021 | 10am

Christie’s sale of Japanese Art and Korean Art spans 259 lots of classical to modern and contemporary works. Among its diverse selections are prints and paintings by ukiyo-e masters such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Hiroshige, including an important Katsushika Hokusai painting and prints; rare Heian Period Kannon sculpture; modern and contemporary art by Shinoda Toko, Inoue Yuichi and Kato Gizan; selections of lacquer works, metalworks, screens and important Korean Works of Art.

Lot 80. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Mitate Asazuma bune (Parody of Asazuma Boat), 1804-05. Signed Gakyojin Hokusai ga, sealed Kimo dasoku; inscription signed by Ota Nanpo (Shokusanjin). Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, 13 ¾ x 22 ¼ in. (34.9 x 56.5 cm.) Estimate USD 400,000 - USD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021 

Property from the collection of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum.

Provenance: Okada Shin'ichiro (1883-1932), Tokyo, architect
Sasagawa Rinpu (1870-1949), Tokyo, haiku poet.

Literature: Three Hundred Years of Ukiyo-e / Exhibition of Masterpieces from The Sakai Collection (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Inc., 1968). no. 58.
Nihon Ukiyo-e Hakubutsukan / Nikuhitsu Ukiyo-e meihin ten (Masterpieces in the collection of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum) (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shinbun, Inc., 1985), cat. no. 52.
Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, ed., Nihon Ukiyo-e Hakubutsukan / Nikuhitsu Ukiyo-e senshu (Selected Ukiyo-e paintings in the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum Collection) (Tokyo: Gakken Co., Ltd, 1985). no. 170.
Japan Ukiyoe Academy, ed., Hokusai (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shinbun, Inc., 1993). cat. no. S5.
Nagata Seiji, ed., Dai Hokusai ten: Edo ga unda sekai no eshi (Great Hokusai Exhibition: International artist born in Edo) (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 1993). no. 26.
Gian Carlo Calza, ed., Hokusai (Milan: Electa, 1999), no. III.45.
Hokusai ten (Hokusai exhibition) (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Inc, 2005). cat. no. 163.
John T. Carpenter, ed., Hokusai and His Age (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005). no. 14.
Nagata Seiji, ed., Shin Hokusai ten / Hokusai updated (Tokyo: Nikkei Inc., NHK, NHK Promotions Inc, 2019). cat. no. 132.

Exhibited: “Three Hundred Years of Ukiyo-e / Exhibition of Masterpieces from The Sakai Collection,” Tobu Department Store Gallery, Tokyo, 18-27 October 1968
"Nihon Ukiyo-e Hakubutsukan / Nikuhitsu Ukiyo-e meihin ten (Masterpieces in the collection of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum)," Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1985
"Dai Hokusai ten: Edo ga unda sekai no eshi (Great Hokusai exhibition: International artist born in Edo)," exhibited at the following venues:
Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2 January-14 February 1993
Otsu City Museum of History, Otsu, 2 March-11 April 1993
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi City, 20 April-23 May 1993
"Hokusai / Nihon Ukiyo-e Hakubutsukan shozo (Hokusai / The loan exhibition from the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum)," exhibited at the following venues:
Daimaru Museum, Tokyo, 29 December 1993-11 January 1994
Daimaru Museum, Osaka, 10 Feburary-15 February 1994
Daimaru Bunka Hall, Shimonoseki, 10 March-15 March 1994
Daimaru Museum, Kyoto, 24 March-5 April 1994
"Hokusai ten (Hokusai exhibition)," Tokyo National Museum, 25 October-4 December 2005
"Shin Hokusai ten (Hokusai updated)," Mori Arts Center Gallery, Tokyo, 17 January-24 March 2019.

Note: In Parody of Asazuma Boat, Hokusai is working in the impromptu ink and light colors mode that he sometimes painted at small literary gatherings in restaurants. As is typical for such works, privately commissioned by Edo literati steeped in the lore of the Floating World, the subject is more complex than appears at first glance. A Yoshiwara courtesan is seated on three quilts, the multiple layers of bedding that mark her high status within the brothel. Her pillow, wrapped in paper, is set on the traditional lacquered wood stand. Beside her, a branch of spring willow emerges from a bamboo flower container on a post, suggesting an interior setting.
The inscription, by the poet-calligrapher Ota Nanpo (1749-1823), here styling himself Shokusanjin, is a humorous song written in the voice of the prostitute. John T. Carpenter translated it as follows in his Hokusai and his Age (Amsterdam: Hotei, 2005):
As one of the men who comes and goes,
on quickly cresting waves of fickleness,
you scribbled a poem on my paper pillowcase,
dipping the brush into the pool of the inkstone
that flows from the [ever-changing] Asuka River. (instrumental interlude)
While yesterday at the bed chambers
of the Okamoto House, there was a popular client,
And though it was not the goose
[of ancient Chinese legend that someone traded for calligraphy by Wang Xizhi],
we, the older and younger sister courtesans, exchanged with him
the scroll for a little bird appropriately called jushimatsu [ten sisters].
This ditty was composed when the courtesan Asazuma received a
pet bird called a jushimatsu in exchange for a scroll of calligraphy that had been brushed for her.
Nanpo recorded this incident—the courtesan who gave back his calligraphy in exchange for a small bird—in his diary in 1803. Soon after that, presumably around 1804, Nanpo repeated the inscription on this painting of Asazuma by Hokusai. Hokusai began using the combination of signature and seal seen here in 1803.
As for the image of the young courtesan seated on quilts beside a branch of willow, it would have been understood by Hokusai’s audience as a parody of the boat prostitute Asazuma, a theme popularized by the artist-rebel Hanabusa Itcho (1652-1724) in the early eighteenth century and then widely circulated in a woodblock-printed version of 1770. Itcho showed a boat prostitute of the port of Asazuma on Lake Biwa, seated in profile and facing left, with a willow tree prominent on the shore behind her; his image was thought to be a subversive reference to the shogun’s concubine and may have been the cause of his exile—a delicious whiff of scandal.
The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum is a privately owned art museum in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. It holds over 100,000 Japanese woodblock prints, regarded as the world's largest collection of this form of art. The museum was established in 1982 by Sakai Tokichi, a member of the Sakai merchant family, who have practiced business in Matsumoto for generations. The first family members to collect ukiyo-e were Sakai Yoshitaka (1810–1869), a paper wholesaler and art patron, and his son and grandson. Over the years, the collection has grown to include contemporary prints by Japanese artists. It is of interest that, in the postwar era, in 1953 and again in 1966, the Japanese government sent two exhibitions of National Treasures to various museums in the United States; one of those exhibitions included ukiyo-e paintings. In 1966, Sakai Tokichi (1915-1993) followed suit, sending a selection of his prints on a world tour to the Louvre, the Japanese Art Museum in Haifa, Israel, and to twelve venues in the United States, such as the New York Public Library. Photos show him at the opening reception at the New York Public Library with its director, Edward G. Freehafer (1909-1985) (far left), and Douglas Overton (1916-1978), Managing Director of Japan Society, New York (far right); Sakai also appears in Chicago at the home of the collector Avery Brundage (1887-1975).

 South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art
Including Works by Benodebehari Mukherjee from the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation
17 March 2021 | 11am

Part I of this auction is led by important early works by Tyeb Mehta (Confidant, 1962) and Francis Newton Souza (Family, 1946). Also included are exceptional examples by modern masters Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza and Narayan Shridhar Bendre. Also featured is a fine group of paintings by Krishen Khanna from the collection of Arthur and Lilly Banwell, acquired directly from the artist over the course of a long family friendship and held privately for over half a century. A diverse contemporary section includes impressive prints and a sculpture by Zarina, and significant works by the region’s most renowned practitioners like Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Ranjani Shettar, Jitish Kallat and Subodh Gupta, to name a few.

Part II includes a significant collection of works by Benodebehari Mukherjee (1904-1980) from the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation. Ethereal landscapes by this pioneer of modern Indian art are complemented by a group of figurative works and nature studies representing every phase of his career. Particularly important are collages, sketches and prints from the final stage of his life, executed after the artist’s complete loss of eyesight. Christie’s is honored to present this notable selection of works by one of the most respected artists and teachers in India from the collection of his daughter Mrinalini Mukherjee’s foundation.

Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art
17 March 2021 | 8:30am

Christie’s sale of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art will present 58 carefully chosen lots featuring works from across India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. The sale is led by the remaining selection of Gandharan sculptures from an important private Japanese collection, the first half of which was offered in the September 2020 record-breaking sale, Devotion in Stone. From this collection comes the sale’s top lot, a magnificent and monumental gray schist figure of Buddha Shakyamuni ($1,500,000-2,500,000). 

Other highlights include a rare Chola-period bronze figure of the Shaivite saint Sambandar with early and esteemed provenance ($700,000-900,000); a well-published folio from the dispersed ‘Lambagraon’ Gita Govinda series attributed to the Kangra court artist Purkhu ($150,000-200,000); a 14th-15th century gilt-bronze figure of a Tibetan Lama ($150,000-200,000); and a fine and rare painting of the Buddhist patron, Hvashang ($200,000-300,000).

Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection
18 March 2020 | 8:30am

Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection, features exceptional examples from China's formative Shang bronze culture from a renowned American collection formed over a span of twenty-five years. These sophisticated pieces provide a glimpse into the spiritual world and mysterious rituals of China's ancient culture and are among the world's most extraordinary works of art. Leading the sale is The Luboshez Gong ($4,000,000-6,000,000), a magnificent and highly important bronze ritual wine vessel. Dating to the 13th-12th century BC, the vessel combines a pouncing tiger with a standing owl to form a powerful, fantastic creature. Acquired by Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez prior to 1949, few similar examples are known, one of which is in the Harvard Art Museums. 

Lot 725. The Luboshez Gong. An exceptional and highly important bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, gong, Late Shang Dynasty, Anyang, 13th-12th century BC; 11 ¾ in. (29.8 cm.) long. Estimate USD 4,000,000 - USD 6,000,000. Price realised USD 8,604,000. © Christie's 2021

 Cf. my post: An exceptional and highly important bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, gong, Late Shang Dynasty, Anyang, 13th-12th century BC

Also of special interest is a rare ritual wine vessel with cover, fangyi, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rafi Mottahedeh. The fangyi, a distinctive rectangular shape with elegantly tapered sides and a delicately rounded lid, is boldly decorated with striking taotie masks, flanked by a pair of long-tailed birds and confronting dragons divided by subtle flanges.

Lot 504. A very rare ritual wine vessel with cover, fangyi, Late Shang Dynasty, Anyang, 12th century BC; 8 ¾ in. (22 cm.) high. Estimate USD 600,000 - USD 800,000. Price realised USD 1,110,000. © Christie's 2021

The slightly tapering, rectangular vessel is cast in crisp, high relief on a leiwen ground on each side with a large taotie mask set between two confronted, long-tailed birds above and two dragons with backward-turned heads on either side of an arched opening on the foot below, all divided by narrow, notched flanges repeated at the corners and also on the cover where the taotie masks are inverted on each slightly convex side below the faceted finial. A single pictogram is cast in the interior base of the vessel and on one interior wall of the cover and may be read as a clan sign. The surface has a mottled blue-green and milky blue-green patination on a cuprite ground.

Provenance: The collection of Mr. & Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, New York.
Property from the Estate of Rafi Y. Mottahedeh (1901-1978), New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 4 November 1978, lot 318.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 1992.
The collection of Daniel Shapiro, New York.

Literature: J. J. Lally & Co., New York, Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Sculpture and Works of Art, New York, 1992, no. 21.
D. Shapiro, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, A Personal Appreciation, London, 2013, pp. 86-91 and 136.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, Chinese Archaic Bronzes: The Collection of Daniel Shapiro, New York, 2014, no. 10 and cover.

Exhibited: New York, J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Archaic Bronzes Sculpture and Works of Art, 2 - 27 June 1992, no. 21.
New York, J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Archaic Bronzes: The Collection of Daniel Shapiro, 14 March - 5 April 2014, no. 10.

Note: Fangyi, which were wine containers, appear to have been one of the most prized of ritual vessels of the Shang dynasty, as thay have been found in fewer and more sumptuous tombs than more common shapes such as gu, jue and ding. In Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, p. 92, J. Rawson and E. Bunker, in their discussion of the fangyi, note that during the Shang dynasty vessels of this rare type were used in pairs, as seen in the tomb of Fu Hao, illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls. XVIII (2) and XIX (1 and 2). Sets of ritual bronzes found in several other tombs at Anyang include a single fangyi. The most similar of these fangyi is the one found in 1983 in Tomb M633 at Dasikong, Anyang, illustrated in Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Yinxu, 2008, pp. 108-109 and pp. 92-93, pl. 24, illustrating the set of bronzes, which includes the fangyi, two jue, two gu, two ding, a gui and a pou. The shape of the Fu Hao and Dasikong fangyi and the decoration and its placement are similar to that of the present vessel. Another similarly decorated fangyi of similar form, from the collection of Mrs. Walter Sedgwick, is illustrated by W. Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 18a. See, also, the fangyi illustrated by M. Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, pp. 28-29. On all of the vessels the motifs are similar, but not identical.

Important Chinese Art from the Junkunc Collection
18 March 2021 | 9am

Christie’s New York is honored to present Important Chinese Art from the Junkunc Collection. Highlights include important jade carvings such as a very rare pale beigish-white and yellowish-brown camel dated to the Tang-Yuan dynasty ($300,000-500,000), a rare miniature yellow jade faceted jar and cover dated to the Qianlong period or earlier ($100,000-150,000), and a finely carved white jade figure of a mythical beast from the 17th-18th century ($100,000-150,000). 

Lot 620. A very rare pale beigish-white and yellowish-brown jade miniature figure of a standing Bactrian camel, Tang-Yuan dynasty (AD 618-1368); 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

Cf. my post: A very rare pale beigish-white and yellowish-brown jade miniature figure of a standing Bactrian camel, Tang-Yuan dynasty

Lot 624. A rare miniature yellow jade faceted jar and cover, fanghu, Qianlong period or earlier; 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm.) high. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. Price realised USD 375,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

Finely carved in imitation of a Han-dynasty hu, the faceted pear-shaped body is raised on a tall, slightly flared foot and is carved in low relief on the shoulders with two mask and ring handles, while the cover is surmounted by four tabbed loops that function as supports when the cover is inverted. The semi-translucent stone of yellowish color has some areas of faint russet color and is finely polished.

Provenance: Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, 3 September 1946.
Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978) Collection.

Literature: A. Salmony, Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, New York, 1963, pl. XXIX-3.

Note: In China’s history, there were two major peaks of intense antiquarian interest, the first during the Northern Song dynasty, 11th-12th centuries, and the second during the late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 16th-18th centuries. See Jenny So, “Impressions of Times Past: Chinese Jades of the 12th and 17th Centuries.” The Woolf Jade Lecture, 16 March 2010, published in Transaction of the Oriental Ceramic Society 74 (2009-2010), 2011, pp. 75-88.

Lot 646. A finely carved white jade figure of a mythical beast, 17th-18th century; 3 ½ in. (9 cm.) long. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. Price realised USD 519,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

The head of the recumbent beast is finely detailed with a broad, curved mouth above the scalloped line of its beard, a nose with down-turned tip and laid-back ears. The body has rounded knobs indicating the backbone and a bifurcated tail which is tufted on one side with finely detailed hair markings. The luminous stone of even white tone has some areas of russet color on one side, and has a satiny polish, hongmu stand.

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978) Collection.

LNote: This finely carved figure is similar to the white jade figure of a recumbent mythical beast illustrated by James C. Y. Watt in Chinese Jade from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, no. 55. The shape of the nose and the softly rounded backbone are very similar, as is the polish. The Seattle figure is dated late Ming to early Qing, and the author notes that the "very fine and technically sophisticated carving points to a date of early Qing." The unusual shape of the nose can also be seen on a yellow and brown jade figure of a mythical animal of Song-dynasty date, illustrated by Watt in Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, The Asia Society, New York, 1980, p. 76, no. 58 and again in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 112-13, no. 85.

The sale also showcases other Chinese works of art including a rare gilt-silver sheath dated to the Liao-Yuan dynasty ($150,000-250,000), 14th-early 18th century archaistic silver and gold-inlaid bronze jar, once in the Qianlong Emperor’s collection ($200,000-300,000), and other early Chinese bronzes, Buddhist figures, lacquers, and scholar’s objects.

Lot 619. An extremely rare gilt-silver sheath, Liao-Yuan dynasty (AD 907-1368); 8 ½ in. (21.7 cm.) long. Estimate USD 150,000 - USD 200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

Cf. my post: An extremely rare gilt-silver sheath, Liao-Yuan dynasty (AD 907-1368)

Lot 636. An archaistic silver and gold-inlaid bronze jar, hu, Ming-Early Qing dynasty, 14th-early 18th century; 15 1/8 in. (38.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

Cf. my post: An archaistic silver and gold-inlaid bronze jar, hu, Ming-Early Qing dynasty, 14th-early 18th century

Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
18 March 2021 | 1pm
19 March 2021 | 8:30am

Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art features works from distinguished private collections, including a rare 17th century huanghuali incense stand from the Yunwai Lou collection ($800,000-1,200,000); Chinese furniture from the collection of Frank E. and Lillian Whitacre; a Kangxi copper-red-decorated `dragon’ vase from an American private collection ($450,000-650,000); a group of Ming and Qing porcelain from a private New York collection; a very rare Yongzheng pale celadon-glazed ‘chrysanthemum’ vase from another private New York collection ($200,000-300,000) as well as rare Buddhist sculptures, ceramics, and other works of art.

Lot 830. An important and extremely rare huanghuali incense stand, xiangji, 17th century, from the Yunwai Lou collection; 35 in. (88.9 cm.) high, 22 ½ in. (57.2 cm.) wide,19 ½ in. (49.2 cm.) deep. Estimate USD 800,000 - USD 1,200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

The paneled top is set in an hexagonal frame above the narrow waist and the cusped, beaded apron finely carved with chilong. The whole is raised on elegant, beaded, faceted cabriole legs terminating in ruyi-form feet and joined by an hexagonal base stretcher.

Provenance: Nicholas Grindley Works of Art, Ltd., London.
Eskenazi, Ltd., London.

Literature: N. Grindley, The Yunwai Lou Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2013, no. 47.

Note: The present incense stand appears to be the only published hexagonal example in huanghuali. Incense stands, both in lacquer and hardwood, are seen in a variety of forms, including round, square, foliate, hexagonal and octagonal. Round incense stands appear to be the most commonly published examples and are often depicted in woodblock prints from the Ming dynasty. The present incense stand successfully balances an elegant design and complex carpentry. The angular top contrasts beautifully with the sensuous curves of the faceted, shaped cabriole legs, which terminate in finely delineated ruyi-form feet. The thickly beaded aprons and narrow waist are carved from one section of wood, and embellished with crisply carved, interlocking tendrils and writhing chilong. This rare design suggests a special commission from a wealthy and cultured individual, who could afford such luxury and masterful craftsmanship.

The Chinese have burned incense and aromatics since the Han dynasty. Censers were used for both secular and religious purposes and held a variety of aromatic substances, some to be burned as incense, others to more slowly release their scent. These censers were used to freshen interiors, and could be placed in imperial offices, private residences, places of worship or used outdoors. To support censers, incense stands became a standard piece of furniture for any individual who could afford luxury goods. Incense stands tend to be tall and symmetrical in form. They were generally placed away from the wall and centrally located within an interior space, to allow for the effective diffusion of scent. Though the name, incense stand, implies a specific use, Ming-dynasty prints show the incense stand used for numerous purposes, including the display of scholar’s rocks, flowers, and decorative objects.

The most similar in design and construction to the present incense stand are a pair of octagonal stands raised on four slender cabriole legs and a rectangular base stretcher: one is currently in the Shanghai Museum of Art and published in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 76, pl. B31 (Fig. 1), the other is illustrated by G. Wu in The Best of the Best: The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, vol. I, Hong Kong, pp. 72-73. A Qianlong-period zitan hexagonal incense stand, with an elaborately carved tall waist and faceted cabriole legs, in the Palace Museum collection and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 174, pl. 156, compares closely to the present stand, but the more ornate details, choice of material, and the stiffness of the legs are more aligned to Qing-dynasty preferences. For an example of a circular incense stand with cabriole legs, dated to the seventeenth-century, see the huanghuali incense stand, (97 cm. high), formerly in the collection of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 1996, lot 48. Another circular huanghuali incense stand, with cusped aprons and inward-curving legs, is published by N. Berliner in Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Boston, 1996. pp. 136-37, no. 23.

A three-legged incense stand, formerly in the Marie Theresa L. Virata Collection, which is the pair to the huanghuali stand formerly in the collection of Wang Shixiang that is now in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 March 2017, lot 613.

Lot 857. An extremely rare copper-red-decorated `dragon’ vase, sanxianping, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1662-1722); 8 ¼ in. (21 cm.) high, cloth box. Estimate USD 450,000 - USD 650,000. Price Realised USD 475,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

The vase is finely potted with high rounded shoulders surmounted by a gently flared neck encircled by a three-ring band at its base. The elongated ovoid body is decorated in underglaze copper-red with two three-clawed dragons, rising from finely incised rolling waves.

Provenance: C. T. Loo, Paris, by repute.
Galerie Barrère, Paris.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York.

This Kangxi vase is exceptionally rare, indeed only three vases of this form and decoration in international museum collections have been published, and no others in private collections appear to be known. A vase of the same shape and decoration, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Mary Clark Thompson in 1923, is illustrated by Suzanne G. Valenstein in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 22, fig. 211. (Fig. 1) A further vase of the same shape and decoration, formerly in the collection of J. P. Morgan, is in the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati (accession number: 1931.135), and is illustrated in The Taft Museum, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 1995, p. 595. (Fig. 2) A further similar Kangxi vase is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and is illustrated by S. W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art Illustrated by Examples from the Collection of W. T. Walters, 1896 (1981 edition), fig. 194. (Fig. 3)

The elegant form of the current vase is known in Chinese as sanxianping ‘three string vase’ – a reference to the three fine raised lines which encircle the lower part of the neck. Another name sometimes applied to this form is laifuping ‘radish vase’, which is a reference to the vessel’s elongated tapering shape. This form is relatively rare amongst Kangxi porcelains, and is usually associated with the prestigious forms known as the ba da ma ‘Eight Great Numbers’, which were made with peach-bloom glaze for the scholar’s table in the Kangxi reign. As the British scholar John Ayers has discussed in ‘The Peachbloom Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722)’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1999-2000, vol. 64, pp. 31-50, there are in fact a total number of nine forms in this peach-bloom group, rather than eight. This may be significant, since, although the number eight was traditionally regarded as lucky, the number nine is the imperial number, and it has been suggested by some scholars that these peach-bloom vessels were made especially to be given as gifts from the Kangxi Emperor to favoured members of the court. The style of the calligraphy used in the reign marks on peach-bloom vessels has led some scholars to suggest that the vessels should date to relatively early in the Kangxi reign, and Professor Peter K. Lam has further suggested that both the form, and the dragon design on pieces such as the current vessel, were developed around 1678-1688, under the influence of the acclaimed painter and calligrapher Liu Yuan (c. 1638-c. 1685). The Qing shi gao ‘Manuscript of Qing History’, published in the Republican period, notes that Liu Yuan provided several hundred designs for imperial porcelain following the reopening of the imperial kiln complex in the early 1680s. The Zaiyuan zazhi, which was written by Liu Tingji, a contemporary of Liu Yuan, also noted that the latter designed many three-dimensional scholar’s objects for the imperial household.

The elegant form of the current vase is known in Chinese as sanxianping ‘three string vase’ – a reference to the three fine raised lines which encircle the lower part of the neck. Another name sometimes applied to this form is laifuping ‘radish vase’, which is a reference to the vessel’s elongated tapering shape. This form is relatively rare amongst Kangxi porcelains, and is usually associated with the prestigious forms known as the ba da ma ‘Eight Great Numbers’, which were made with peach-bloom glaze for the scholar’s table in the Kangxi reign. As the British scholar John Ayers has discussed in ‘The Peachbloom Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722)’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1999-2000, vol. 64, pp. 31-50, there are in fact a total number of nine forms in this peach-bloom group, rather than eight. This may be significant, since, although the number eight was traditionally regarded as lucky, the number nine is the imperial number, and it has been suggested by some scholars that these peach-bloom vessels were made especially to be given as gifts from the Kangxi Emperor to favoured members of the court. The style of the calligraphy used in the reign marks on peach-bloom vessels has led some scholars to suggest that the vessels should date to relatively early in the Kangxi reign, and Professor Peter K. Lam has further suggested that both the form, and the dragon design on pieces such as the current vessel, were developed around 1678-1688, under the influence of the acclaimed painter and calligrapher Liu Yuan (c. 1638-c. 1685). The Qing shi gao ‘Manuscript of Qing History’, published in the Republican period, notes that Liu Yuan provided several hundred designs for imperial porcelain following the reopening of the imperial kiln complex in the early 1680s. The Zaiyuan zazhi, which was written by Liu Tingji, a contemporary of Liu Yuan, also noted that the latter designed many three-dimensional scholar’s objects for the imperial household.

The close link with the imperial household is clear, however, the sophistication of both glaze and form, as well as the discovery of a vase of similar form and with similar dragon decorated in underglaze copper red as on the current vase, but with the reign mark of the succeeding Yongzheng reign (AD 1723-35) amongst the Chinese porcelains in the Victoria and Albert Museum collections (see Ayers, op. cit., p. 41, fig. 17), and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, formerly in the Friedsam Collection, with a Yongzheng mark, and similar design (although the waves and clouds are painted rather than carved) – see Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1982, colour plate 30 - has led some scholars to conclude that the peach-bloom vessels, and by extension the current vase, are more likely to have been produced in the latter years of the Kangxi reign. The same vase form with similar dragon design – albeit in low relief rather than painted – also appears amongst the fine celadon-glazed porcelains of the Kangxi reign. Two such celadon vases preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, are illustrated by Geng Baochang (ed.), in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Qing Porcelains from the Imperial Kilns Preserved in the Palace Museum), Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pls. 112 and 113, while a similar vase was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 29 May 2009, lot 1819.

Interestingly, very similar three-clawed dragons, painted in underglaze copper red against a white background, appear on another vase form in the Kangxi reign. This vase shape has a long columnar neck and quite sharply angled shoulders, while the red dragon is depicted on the upper part of the shoulders and the lower part of the neck. Two of these long-necked vases were in the collection of Richard Bennett (b. 1849) of Thornby Hall in Northampton before entering the collection of J. Insley Blair (1870-1939). They were illustrated in The J. Insley Blair Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Tuxedo Park, New York, 1925, pl. 1, middle row, nos. 2 and 4. One was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 28 November 2012, lot 2117.

The link between the current vase and these long-necked vases is significant, since the latter have a further link with Kangxi peach-bloom vessels. The proportions and profile of these long-necked vases are unusual in the Kangxi reign, but amongst the ba da ma peach-bloom vessels is a vase of this shape and approximately the same size. While there is no underglaze painting on the peach-bloom vessel, this is the only da ba ma peach-bloom form to have a modelled dragon applied to its exterior. In this case the modelled dragon is three-clawed and is of similar type to the dragons painted in underglaze red on both the long-necked and ‘three-string’ vases. The dragon on the peach-bloom vases is glazed green. One of these ‘dragon’ peach-bloom vases is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It had formerly been in the collection of Thomas Benedict Clarke, who sold it to Benjamin Altman in 1903. Altman in turn bequeathed the vase to the Metropolitan Museum of Art at his death in 1913. The vase is illustrated by Suzanne G. Valenstein, op. cit., p. 237, fig. 232; and by Denise Patry Leidy in How to Read Chinese Ceramics, New York, 2015, p. 121, fig. 35.1.

The link between the current vase, its long-necked copper red-decorated companion, and Kangxi peach-bloom-glazed porcelains suggests that they were of particular importance. A considerable amount of research has been undertaken into Kangxi peach-bloom vessels and, as mentioned above, some scholars have suggested that they may have been chosen as gifts bestowed by the emperor on selected members of the court as special tokens imperial favour. Both the peach-bloom glaze and underglaze copper red decoration provided significant challenges to the craftsmen at the imperial kilns, and the similarity in shape and related decoration may suggest that vases, like the current vessel, enjoyed analogous status at court.

South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art Online
4-18 March 2021 | Online

Christie’s online auction of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art, taking place from 4-18 March, complements our live auction of works from this category, to be held in New York on 17 March. Together, these two sales celebrate a wide variety of artistic practices from the South Asian subcontinent and its diaspora across the 20th and 21st centuries. The online sale includes excellent modern works on paper by artists Maqbool Fida Husain, Francis Newton Souza, Manjit Bawa, Prabhakar Barwe and Jogen Chowdhury, alongside those by their mentors and pioneers of regional schools like Abdul Rahman Chughtai, Walter Langhammer, Nek Chand, Kamrul Hasan and Chittaprosad Bhattacharya. Rounding out the catalogue is a section of exceptional works by modern Pakistani artists and contemporary works by artists including Surendran Nair, Nilima Sheikh, Arpana Caur and Paresh Maity.