Pair of Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain Teabowls c.1700.

A Pair of Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain Teabowls c.1690-1710. Painted with Men on Horseback at Full Gallop Hunting Deer. The bases with Apocryphal Chenghua (Ming Dynasty) Marks.
SOLD

Condition
Poor, one in three pieces and repaired, the other broken in two with two old repaired chip
Size
Diameter : 8.2 cm (3 1/4 inches).
Provenance
Robert McPherson Antiques The John Drew Collection of Chinese and Japanese Porcelain.
Stock number
23319

Photos

Information

Apocryphal Marks :
Apocryphal marks are frequently encountered on Chinese porcelain particularly on Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain, the mark of the Ming Emperor Chenghua who reigned from 1465 to 1487 being by far the most common, other Ming marks include Jiajing (1522-1566) and less frequently Wanli (1573-1620). These marks were not added to the piece to deceive, but more as a sign of reverence to earlier potters of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Occasionally they are used on pieces copying Ming Porcelain, these objects were probably made for collectors who could not afford the Ming original. Tianqi is an early period for such an apocryphal mark.

Chinese Hunting Subjects :
A very familiar subject on Chinese export porcelain of the late 17th and early 18th centuries is that of mounted hunting by Chinese hunts men and women. These designs were produced in blue and white, Famille Verte as well as Rouge de Fer. The scenes show well dressed people chasing their prey at speed on horseback, often using bow and arrow, to hunt for their quarry of rabbit or deer. Sometimes the huntsmen are depicted with hawks, and with dogs, which are often shown with collars. Later in the 18th century European hunting scenes were popular, but earlier Chinese hunters were depicted in Chinese settings, more specifically Manchu Chinese hunters. New rulers of China formed the Qing dynasty in the mid 17th century, they were of Manchu origin and one of the important cultural changes they made was to introduce their love of hunting, especially hunting on horseback. This love was not shared by the indigenous Han Chinese of the Ming dynasty, but it was deeply embedded in the Manchu mentality. During the first half of Qing Dynasty, the emperor would hold an Autumn hunt at Mulan. Mulan was located in Weichang, Manchu and Mongolian Autonomous County of Chengde City, Hebei Province. It was an imperial hunting lodge built on rare natural grassland coving an area of 2,324 square kilometres. Constructed in the 20th year of Emperor Kangxi`s reign (1681), the three emperors of Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing all held hunting activity here in the mountains during what became an annual event for the imperial household. Hunting and the military manoeuvres were inextricably linked and both were used to try to enhance conciliation between the rather fractured ethnic minorities that constituted early Qing China.