Ming & Earlier

Chinese cloisonné rectangular panel, decorated in the centre with two scholars seated in a viewing pavilion while their attendant brings them a wrapped qin, all amongst palace rooftops in a mountainous landscape scene, with willow, wutong, pine and five other different trees, amongst ruyi clouds, rockwork and bamboo sprays, all in rich colours of lapis, green, white, yellow, brown, red and black on a turquoise ground, encircled by a lapis blue-ground border with continuous stylised branches.

Chinese porcelain blue and white deep kraak basin, painted in the centre with two pairs of geese, one standing on a rocky promontory, one swimming in a river landscape and a pair in flight, amongst elaborate lotus leaves and rock work beneath the sun, with a wide cavetto with panels of precious objects including fan, scrolls, ruyi-sceptre beneath a foliate rim with mythical animal masks, the underside with classic kraak decoration.

A superb Chinese celadon glazed thinly potted deep bowl, carved on the interior and exterior with the flowers of the four seasons, lotus, camellia, chrysanthemum and peony on a scrolling continuous leafy branch, the well of the interior with a single tree-peony issuing from rockwork amongst large leaves, the foot carved with a band of key-fret, covered overall in an even rich celadon glaze. Yongle/Xuande, Longquan kilns, Zhejiang Province, 1402-1435.

A superb Chinese celadon glazed tripod, two-handled incense burner with rounded body, cabriole legs, everted rim and upright openwork handles, covered overall in a bright celadon glaze extending to the interior and on the underside, the feet unglazed revealing the burnt-red fired body, the well of the interior used in the kiln for firing a further piece, with Japanese metalwork gilt- lined cover.

Chinese large celadon glazed tripod incense burner modelled in high-relief with a wide central register containing the ‘Eight Trigrams’ between carved leaves and flowers and within relief ribs, all on three cabriole feet and beneath the flat rim, covered overall in a rich and even unctuous celadon glaze extending onto the interior and base, the unglazed centre of the base and interior revealing the burnt-red biscuit body.

Chinese celadon glazed incense burner modelled as a duck standing on pierced rockwork with upright neck and open beak with incised eyes, wings and feather work, the unglazed flat burnt-red biscuit base revealing the body with some ink characters, one wing forming the censer cover.

A Chinese porcelain wucai cylindrical charcoal burner, hire, painted in a continuous scene, with a seated scholar holding a wine cup in his left hand, whilst resting his right hand on a book, beside wine jars and kang table with a ewer, the reverse with his attendant bringing him a goose, amongst bamboo, plantain, rockwork, fencing and foliage, the enamels painted in bright tones of turquoise, yellow, green and aubergine, heightened in iron-red, all beneath a band of double keyfrets in underglaze blue dispersed between flowering branches and precious objects, and beneath a brown-dressed rim, most of the interior unglaze, all on a short foot rim, the underside with a four character mark, tian xia tai ping, "peace and prosperity under heaven", within a double square.

Chinese celadon glazed openwork rectangular-form table screen on integral stand incised with scrolls and petal-shape front, carved with two dragons, one rising from the waves, the other descending from the clouds in a square frame surrounded by seven apertures, the flanged sides incised with scrolls, the reverse plain with two holders for incense, the top edge with chamfered corners, covered overall in an even, rich, celadon glaze, the underside revealing the burnt-red biscuit body from the firing.

A remarkable massive Chinese celadon glazed vase carved in high relief on the body with peony flowers on scrolling branches with leaves, beneath a similar register on the neck, above a wide band of relief leaves above the ribbed foot, the flared curved rim with ribs, covered overall in a rich and even luminous celadon glaze continuing on the inside of the neck, the underside of the base with ink marks.

Large Chinese Longquan celadon-glazed vase of yenyen, feng wei zun, phoenix-tail, form, with tall, cylindrical flared neck, baluster body and raised foot, carved with large peony blooms on a continuous leafy branch, repeated on the neck, all on a slightly combed ground, between three classic ribs beneath the flared rim and with upright leaves above the foot, the footrim burned red in the firing with recessed glazed base, covered overall in a rich and even, luminous celadon glaze.

Chinese longquan celadon insense burner and cover of square form, moulded on the exterior in relief with four panels with the Eight Trigrams, repeated twice, within a relief frame, the flat cover surmounted by a Buddhist lion, holding a brocade ball and ribbon it its front paws.

Chinese porcelain wucai vase and cover of meiping form, painted in a continuous scene, from the Romance of the Western Chamber, with a monk at the monastery being visited by a bandit, with Ying Ying and her maidservant Hongnian looking out from beyond a screen, with a bearded figure looking out from a window, the underglaze blue particularly well-drawn with bamboo rockwork and the roof to the entrance of the monastery, the reverse with iron-red cloud banks, the drop over cover painted with lingzhi, aster and bamboo, the gently sloped top with fruiting peach in iron-red beneath the underglaze blue finial.

Large and substantially potted celadon glazed bowl, moulded on the exterior with a wide band of flowering lotus and camellia on scrolling, leafy branches above a band of stylised leaves and beneath a band of overlapping petals; carved on the interior with a single wide band extending to the base with the reverse technique of the exterior of lotus and camellia, all encircling a flowerhead in the well, the unglazed base burnt red in the firing with an impressed glazed centre.

Chinese porcelain wucai square-form dish with champfered corners painted in the centre with two phoenix birds in flight on an iron-red cash diaper ground, encircled by sprays of prunus, bamboo, pine and peach flower, the flat everted rim with iron-red keyfret.

Chinese porcelain wucai, ko akai deep dish, with fluted petal-shaped sides and foliate brown-dressed rim, painted with two pheasants, one standing on rockwork the other swooping down, between flowering peach and peony branches, encircled by an elaborate panelled border, of different geometric grounds including fans, flowerheads, hexagons, scales, lozenge and chain-mail, all heightened with bright green, yellow, turquoise and iron-red enamels; the border of the underside incised in anhua with butterflies and insects, dispersed between flowerheads above further anhua petals at the foot.

Large Chinese porcelain blue and white serving dish with needle point foliate rim, hariki, brightly painted with large magpies and squirrels amongst the ‘three friends of winter’, sanyou, pine prunus and bamboo, the squirrels clambering amongst fruiting vine branches beneath a scrolling branch of flowers and a brown dressed foliate rim, the underside with birds perched on a continuous branch of flowering prunus.

Chinese porcelain blue and white deep basin with flat, everted rim, painted in the centre and the cavetto with twenty-six large shou characters on a fruiting lingzhi continuous scrolling branch, beneath a blue ground wave border with plum blossom, the underside with branches and flowers beneath a blue-dressed rim.

Chinese porcelain ko-akai, wucai, dish of flower form, with foliate rim, painted with a scholar and his attendant crossing  a bridge in a river landscape scene, the scholar carrying a staff while the attendant carries a wrapped qin, all beneath iron-red clouds and the sun with an overhanging flowering tree, heightened in green, yellow, aubergine and iron-red enamels with underglaze blue, all beneath a brown-dressed rim.