Lot 1720. A rare glazed biscuit figure of a seated luohan, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 19 in. (48.3 cm.) high with stand. Estimate $30,000 - $40,000. Price Realized $35,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

The seated figure wearing a priest's patchwork robe painted in black, green yellow and mauve and with shou medallions, over an under-robe decorated with scattered flowers reserved on a mauve ground, his hands projecting from the wide sleeves, his broad, expressive face well modeled and covered with a clear glaze, his hair left in the biscuit, most of the back also left in the biscuit around a central aperture and painted in black with a twelve-character dedicatory inscription, xin shi dizi Yang Zhongda Jiang Zhongrenxi zhu, with a four-character potter's mark, Chen Tiansui, painted on the lower left sleeve; seated on a wood stand with gold wire inlay well carved as a three-legged throne raised on a dias, the back of the curved throne carved in openwork with dragons amidst clouds, and the apron and legs with bats amidst ribbon-tied auspicious symbols, repeated on the sides of the dias, while the top is carved in imitation of a carpet. 

Provenance: Dr. Jacob Goldschmidt Collection, Berlin.
Sydney Moss, London.
Chait Galleries, New York.
Jacob Harteg Collection, New York.
Marty Klinger Collection.

Literature: Christie's, London, 1938, Goldschmidt Collection.

Exhibited: Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 12 January- 9 April 1929, number 752. 

Note: The inscription may be translated, 'Devotees Yang Zhongda and Jiang Zhongren happily offer this image'.

Two comparable dignitaries, wearing elaborate hats, and also seated on thrones with similar bases, from the collection of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, 1989 ed., p. 228, no. 222, the God of Wealth in his military aspect, and col. pl. 33, the God of Wealth in his civil aspect. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I and Part II Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 24 March 2011, New York, Rockefeller Plaza