Lot 33. A very fine blue and white tankard, Chongzhen period (1628-1644); 21.5cm (8 1/2in) high. Sold for £8,287.50 (Est: £6,000 - £8,000). © Bonhams 2001-2022

The cylindrical vessel of tapering form, boldly painted around the exterior in vibrant tones of cobalt-blue with a continuous scene of a scholar with a fan by a gnarled taihu rock with two young boy attendants approaching, carrying a goose and a box and cover, all amidst a balustraded garden setting with mountains in the distance, between foliate borders at the foot and mouth, applied with a loop handle decorated with lotus.

Provenance: Blitz Oriental Ceramics and Works of Art, Amsterdam, 22 June 1993.

Note: The Dutch sent stoneware tankards to Jingdezhen from Cologne in Germany in 1635 to serve as models for these Dutch market tankards, of which there are extant examples. See a similar blue and white tankard decorated with a scholar, Chongzhen, illustrated in Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Collections: Beauty's Enchantment, Shanghai, 2005, pp.322-323, no.121. See also a related blue and white tankard, 1635-1645, but decorated with a foreigner, illustrated by J.Ayer, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, vol.1, London, 2016, p.124, no.238.

Compare with a related silver-mounted blue and white tankard, Chongzhen, which was sold at Christie's New York, An Era of Inspiration: 17th Century Chinese Porcelains from the Collection of Julia and John Curtis, 16 March 2015, lot 3511.

Bonhams. THE MARSH COLLECTION ART FOR THE LITERATI, 3 November 2022, London, New Bond Street