M2271/M2472
Description
Pair of Chinese porcelain famille verte large two handled fish bowls, painted on both sides with branches of flowering peony amongst daisies, with chrysanthemum sprays beneath the biscuit lion mask handles, all between iron-red bands of stylised leaves and chrysanthemum flower heads, the waist with reserves of flowers on a geometric iron-red and gilt ground with chrysanthemum flower heads, each interior painted with forty-one carp, two shrimp and two crabs amongst aquatic plants, all beneath the flat everted lipped rim, painted with reserves of fish alternating with shrimp on a geometric cash diaper ground with chrysanthemum flower heads and scrolls on the rim.
The rim 23 inches, 58.5 cm diameter.
35 inches, 89 cm overall height on stands.
15 3/4 inches, 40 cm high without stands.
Kangxi, circa 1715, together with later European gilt wood stands.
Condition
Both good condition, one gilt wood stand replaced.
Provenance & Additional Information
- One formerly in the collection of Madame Von Sung Yang, wife of the late Dr. Ho Ching Yang (1900-1964). The other from a Scottish castle.
The lives of Dr. Ho Ching Yang (1900-1964) and his wife Madame Von Sung Yang, nee Soong, (1903-2005), span a century of Chinese and American history. Dr. Yang was educated in China and Germany with a medical degree from Tongji Medical College in Shanghai and a degree in Otolaryngology from Rostock University Medical College, graduating with highest honours. He was a prominent physician and an avid collector of art. In 1937, with open warfare engulfing China, the couple and their six children were forced to flee Suzhou and to abandon their possessions, including a treasured art collection. Dr. Yang and his family settled in New York in 1939, where they renewed their passion for collecting Chinese porcelain. By the mid forties Dr. Ho Ching Yang had changed careers becoming a stock broker at a prominent Wall Street brokerage and with time was designated Vice President and elevated to the Board of Directors. Dr. & Madame Yang’s involvement in the Chinese community extended to the China institute in America, where he was President of the Board of Trustees and she served as a trustee.
- An identical fish bowl, the property of the late A. H. Y. M. Herbert, sold by order of the executors, was sold by Christie’s London in their auction of Fine Chinese Export Porcelain, Cloisonné Enamels and Works of Art, 19th March 1979, lot no. 36, p. 16 and colour plate facing page 31.
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