Catalog (44)

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an exceptional and large Transitional Period (1635 - 1650) kraakware porcelain bowl of the rare Border IX Type. The center well depicts a scholar being served tea, three trapezoidal-shaped panels on the bowl's inner wall depict figures in various landscape settings, and the outside of the bowl is decorated with six additional panels of figures in various landscape settings. All scenes are separated by narrower panels of what are alternatively calle...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, and in honor of the Chinese New Year / Year of the Dragon, we are pleased to offer this large and unusual, five-clawed dragon decorated Shu-family memorial censer, inscribed and dated to the twenty-third year of the Republic (1934), with the "min guo er shi san nian" date appearing on the right side of the ancestral temple, and a family dedication from Shu family descendants appearing to the left. Flanking the ancestral temple on each side are two well...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a large Qianlong Period (1736-1795) leaf-shaped platter in the so-called "Two Quail Pattern," featuring an elegant Lady and Gentleman exchanging flirtatious glances in a treed pastoral setting with two quail milling about in the foreground. This large and heavy porcelain platter of unusual form is painted in deep blue with brown iron oxide dressing to the outer rim edges. For a published example of dishes in this pattern, see Chris Gurton's book: "Th...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an exceptionally rare Kangxi Period (1662-1722) porcelain dish made in the Transitional Period style, depicting a man and two boys in the center well, with the border executed in a facsimile of the Border IX Transitional Period kraakware design of 1635-1650. Maura Rinaldi discusses the Border IX design in "Kraak Porcelain, A Moment in the History of Trade" p. 112-115.

This dish is a highly obscure and esoteric item that is probably best suited on...

From our Japanese Collection, a fine and rare early 18th century blue and white porcelain Arita bowl, Edo Period circa 1700-1730, painted in the Chinese style, depicting Shoulao (the Chinese god of wisdom and longevity) on a flying crane in the center well, with four alternating reserves depicting the Eight Immortals on the outer wall, separated by reserves of shou characters (Chinese good luck signs), and all executed in a slightly greyish underglaze blue typical of early 18th century Arita wa...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a very rare Kangxi Period (1662-1722) porcelain dish, which is actually a Kangxi version of an earlier Japanese version of yet an even earlier Ming kraakware design, depicting a flower basket in the center medallion, surrounded by ogival panels of buddhist objects and auspicious symbols in the outer border, all very well-painted in varying shades of good Kangxi blue with an excellent glaze.

To novice eyes, this dish probably looks like just anot...

From our Japanese Collection, a fine and large mid-to-late 18th century blue and white porcelain dish, circa 1740-1780, painted in the Chinese style depicting a home with people on an embankment, a treed outcrop in the distance with geese flying overhead, and some unidentified structures in the foreground. The entire scene is surrounded by a border of characters, and all executed in a greyish blue on dense grey porcelain paste, typical of 18th century Japanese Arita ware. The back of the dish is...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an elegant 19th century porcelain baluster jar with cover, decorated with figures in a fenced garden setting with scholar’s rocks, butterflies, and floral sprays.

Some collectors tend to be a bit haughty when it comes to 19th century blue and white wares, as it is generally recognized that these blue and white pieces tend to fall off in quality as we get late into this period. As afficionados of Transitional Period through Qianlong Period war...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an extremely well-painted pair of Qianlong Period (1736-1795), "soft paste" porcelain dishes, depicting what is probably a tea merchant's house on the bank of the Pearl River in Canton, including the typical "river scene" elements of bridges, water, land masses, and distant mountains, all executed in an especially vibrant blue, with an ornate border richly decorated in a combination of butterflies, ruyi head, and cash diaper motifs.

The design o...

From our Shipwreck Porcelain Collection, a fine and large blue and white Ca Mau Shipwreck dish ex-Sotheby's, Yongzheng Period 1723-1735, datable more specifically to circa 1725. The scene depicts Europeans (most likely Dutch traders) on what was once mistakenly thought to be Deshima Island in Nagasaki Harbor Japan, but which recent scholarship now concludes is either a scene of Holland in the Netherlands, or Gothenborg in Sweden. We personally agree with the academic viewpoint that the scene dep...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a good Ming Dynasty kraakware dish, late Wanli Period circa 1600-1620, of well-known and documented form, executed in Border VIII style with a central bird some scholars opine is either a magpie or a duck, sitting upon a lotus pond outcropping and encircled by a ten-point buddhist star, further encircled by ten ogival panels of buddhist symbols in the outer border, all executed in a slightly greyish blue on a barbed-form dish with slightly upturned lip...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an interesting so-called "Scholar's Examination Dish,” Kangxi Period (1662-1722), decorated in a slightly greyish underglaze blue, depicting a leaping carp juxtaposed against a fierce dragon clutching at the flaming pearl of wisdom, with wave shaped aquatic motifs on the border, and a square fu character on the reverse.

We have not researched the symbolism of this particular piece ourselves, but we are told by a colleague that the leaping carp...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a rare Kangxi Period (1662-1722) porcelain dish depicting a stylized version of an earlier Ming Dynasty kraakware design, featuring an eight-sided buddhist wheel or star in the center medallion, surrounded by ogival panels of buddhist emblems, auspicious symbols, and swatiska motifs in the outer border.

Within the vast gamut of Kangxi blue and white wares in general, there is a much smaller sub-category of Kangxi wares that were made in imitatio...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, an unusually fine and early Qianlong Period (1736-1795) Nanking meat platter, depicting a willow tree and scholar's table objects amidst a flowered outcropping as the central design, surrounded by an elaborate border of butterflies, buddhist symbols, scrolls, and floral motifs.

Like our similarly shaped Qianlong Period Tureen Base Item # 959327 (Sold), this piece is top quality in terms of "Nanking Ware" (not to be confused with Nanking Cargo Sh...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a good ginger jar with "double shu" design bestowing "double happiness," late 19th century, either Tongzhi (1862-1874) or Guangxu Period (1875-1908).

Jars such as this current example were often given as gifts containing foodstuffs with the lids glued shut. As a result, many lids were broken upon opening and subsequently lost to history, which is why so many are seen without their original lids. It's always nice to find an example with its origin...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a fine Qianlong Period (1736-1795) sauce tureen base of rectangular form with chamfered corners, depicting a gentleman with ladies on a fenced terrace pavilion along with a flowering tree, surrounded by an intricate border design of cash diaper motifs, key frets, and flower sprigs, all executed in deep blue upon a body of dense 18th century export porcelain.

This particular example is quite unusual due to its subject matter. While in various inc...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a very fine Qianlong Period (1736-1795), blue and white sauce tureen base of rectangular form with chamfered corners, depicting a river scene with fenced pagodas, people, bridges, and boats on water, with a meticulously intricate border design of cash diaper motifs, butterflies, key frets, and other details, all executed in an attractive blue of varying shades upon a body of dense 18th century export porcelain.

Qianlong Period export ware such a...

From our Chinese Blue and White Collection, a fine Qianlong Period (1736-1795) large export porcelain dish or small charger, depicting "Three Friends of Winter," pine, prunus, and bamboo, in a fenced garden setting with floral sprigs and cash diaper motifs on the border. The reverse is plain.

This is an unusually well-executed example of 18th century export ware. The painting is very refined and precise, with delicate shading to the flowers, and a wonderful sense of restraint and proporti...