Catalog: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian (73)

It was not until the Qing dynasty that the Jingdezhen potters finally mastered the production of this very difficult bright black enamel glaze. Unfortunately, these vases were frequently fired a third time overpainted with intricate gold enamel patterns, but the plain monochromes are much more achieved. The very elegant form of this vase with its long neck and compressed body derived ultimately from Han bronze models, and became especially popular in Qianlong times...

This attractive barrel-shaped jar has a crackled cream glaze with a second bright green enamelled overglaze. A bright apple green enamel had been used previously but never as an overall monochrome glaze on top of a crackled one until the Kangxi period (1661-1722). This jar has a Kangxi four-character mark but dates, like almost all four-character “Kangxi” pieces, from the late nineteenth century...

A very nice little jar with a thick geyao glaze. it dates to the end of the nineteenth century. Diameter: 7.1 cm. Condition: Very good.

This small but elegant late Qing Geyao vase is in double gourd (Hulu) shape. The green to grey glaze with a pleasing pattern of dark brown crackle lines, covers the whole vase, inside and out, with the exception of the foot rim. Size: Height: 10.7 cm. Condition: Excellent condition, with only light scratches to the glaze. Purchased in Hong Kong in 1995. Price: USD $260; CAD $350 (13% HST will be applied on all sales in Ontario.)

Yokoyama Seiki is an artist from the Shoji school during the late Edo period.(1603-1868) . Seiko was one of the best pupils of Matsumura Keibun (1779-1843). Seiki is particularly renowned for the fine quality of his Kacho-ga as well as for his figurative and landscape paintings. Signed with the artist’s two inkans, Qing and Hui, which are Seiki’s name in Chinese, this particular painting on paper is signed by hand and inkan. It shows a fisherman on a boat and steering it downstream...

This late nineteenth century teapot was manufactured in Jingdezhen and enamelled either there or in Guangzhou. By that period in Thailand ware that previously had been utilized solely by the royal court was becoming fashionable with the newly-wealthy classes. This pot and its lid are decorated in a “trellis and flower” pattern in the Lai Nam Thong (gold wash) style...

Rank badges (Buzi, Mandarin Square) were textile panels that normally decorated the official outfits of nobles and civil and militarily officials during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This particular example has 5 bats (wu fu) symbolizing  5 blessings (a commonly used homophone in traditional Chinese culture): health, wealth, longevity, love of virtue and a peaceful death...

Snuff was introduced into China from the West in the seventeenth century and its popularity quickly engendered a new art form, the snuff bottle. This exquisite little ovoid bottle is very well made from layered opaque white/pink/white glass finely carved into an elaborate surface of lotus petals with a coiled lotus stem forming the base rim...

This is an excellent example of one of the most sought-after kinds of porcelain snuff-bottles. It has a good jadeite stopper and dates from the Daoguang reign (1821-1850). On one side there is a typical close-up of a cricket and on the other a slightly more unusual depiction of a cricket climbing over its open cage. It has fanciful mask handles on each shoulder. Height: 6.3 cm; Width: 5.4 cm. Condition: Very good, with a small abraded patch to the glaze on the rim.

This finely enamelled bowl features two pheasants resting on peony branches on a rich coral ground(Yanzhihong). A Kangxi Yuzhi Mark (A mark in underglaze blue within a double square) is at the base but most likely it is a 19th century to early republic piece. Dia: 15.3 cm, H: 7.7cm Condition: Excellent, no chips, no cracks or sign of repairs.

Peach-bloom glaze or apple-red (Jiangdouhong) Liuye ping was an original and major innovation of Jingdezhen ware in the Kangxi Period (1661-1722). The deep red glaze is beautifully applied all over the body, giving way to the white base layer of glaze only at the mouthrim. This small but exquisite vase shows the perfection of Liuye ping: A fine and slender boy sits on a narrow recessed base (white)...

A small, brown glazed vase from North China, Yuan or Ming dynasty. The vase is covered all over with a dark brown glaze that thins somewhat on the base. It has high shoulders applied with a stylized floral pattern and a flaring mouth. It may have originally functioned as a small wine container. Condition: Good with wear commensurate with its age. Size: H: 13 cm. Dia: 10.07 cm

Every collector should have a few of these Ming dynasty pottery burial figures in their collection. They are such a good bargain and they tell us so much about Chinese culture. Whereas the Tang dynasty figures are always rather theatrical, these Ming(1368-1644) attendants are resolutely realistic. They remind me of the bored professional mourners one still sees occasionally at funerals today...

Every collector should have some of these Ming dynasty pottery burial figures in their collection. They are such a good bargain and they tell us so much about Chinese culture. Whereas the Tang dynasty figures are always rather theatrical, these Ming attendants are resolutely realistic. They remind me of the bored professional mourners one still sees occasionally at funerals today...

Celebratory porcelain cups (often rather pretentiously called libation cups) with a translucent creamy white glaze over the high-fired perfectly white paste, Dehua, China, late Ming Dynasty, c 1630-1650. The form is that of a rhinoceros horn cup. The decorative appliqués on the larger one show a four-clawed dragon emerging from a cloud, a tiger and a stag standing beneath plum and pine branches. There is a crane, too, on the smaller cup...

Every collector should have some of these Ming dynasty pottery burial figures in their collection. They are such a good bargain and they tell us so much about Chinese culture. Whereas the Tang dynasty figures are always rather theatrical, these Ming attendants are resolutely realistic. They remind me of the bored professional mourners one still sees occasionally at funerals today...

Produced in the Kangxi period (1661-1722), this fine plate was intended for the export market and painted in the fashionable Japanese style. Jingdezhen's monopoly on porcelain production was broken in 1616 when Japanese potters at Arita figured out how to produce their own porcelain wares. These were exported to the outside world from the port at Imari, and their dramatic combination of underglaze blue with overglaze red and gold proved an enormous success. The demand for “Imari” wares was s...

This is a possible Jiajing piece as it has a purple undertone and no black spots, which was common for Jailing porcelain (During the Jailing period, the formula that was used to produce blue and white porcelain was generally low in iron and manganese which produced an undertone of purple). Inside this lovely bow, it depicts a scholar wearing high hat on a deer which is called “Lu Gao Sheng”. “Lu Gao Sheng” are phonograms of “deer”, “High, tall” and “To raise”. On the outside...