An Unusual 'wucai' vase depicting 'The Tang Emperor visits the Moon Palace'. Transitional period

the elongated baluster vessel painted in polychrome enamels with the Tang emperor Xuanzong, surrounded by Daoist magicians, one of whom is raising his wand before the Goddess of the moon, Chang E, the deity elegantly portrayed with her attendants in a pavilion within a moon-shaped reserve, a thin 'cracked-ice' border at the shoulder, below a waisted neck painted with chrysanthemum and peony sprays issuing from rockwork, the interior of the mouth with two striding qilong each pursuing lingzhi sprays.

height 21 in., 53.3 cm. Estimate: 35,000—45,000 USD

Note : The subject of the present vase is identified by Julia B. Curtis in Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century. Landscapes, Scholars' Motifs and Narratives, Seattle, 1995, p. 112. Curtis, in her discussion of a blue and white jar and cover, decorated with the same subject, attributed to the Transitional period, notes that the scene is drawn from a famous Tang dynasty poem, The Song of Eternal Regret. In the poem, the ill-fated emperor is searching for the soul of his lost love, Yang Guifei, murdered by the emperor's bodyguard as they blamed her for the events leading to the An Lushan rebellion of 755. In a seventeenth century drama based on the poem, the lovers are reunited in the moon palace of Chang E. Another wucai vase, attributed to circa 1650-60, of very similar form and decoration, from the Butler Family Collection, is illustrated in Michael Butler et al, Shunzhi Porcelain, Treasures from an Unknown Reign, Alexandria, 2002, p. 207. Compare two wucai Transitional jars and covers decorated with the same theme, sold in our London rooms, 8th June 1982, lot 44, and 11th November 1997, lot 88. Compare also two wucai Transitional vases of the same unusual form, with different decoration, illustrated in Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, Qing Porcelain, Famille Verte, Famille Rose, London, 1987, no. 22, p. 28, and another wucai vase of this form, sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1990, lot 288.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art including Chinese and Japanese Art from The Collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal. 16 Sep 08. www.sotheby's.com