A Rare Early Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain Vase 1670s.

Early Kangxi c.1670s.

A Rare Early Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain Vase 1670s. From the Collection of John Drew (1933 – 2006). This elegantly potted vase is of an unusual form, and is rather heavily potted with a good balance visually and when held. This the subject matter is referred to as ‘fruit and flowers’. The painting is free, with swift confident brush strokes. The painter has using various techniques without resorting to outlines, including dots added with a wet brush, small spikey marks have been achieved with a flick of the wrist, creating small leaves and shoots. The chrysanthemum flowers are linear, with some of the outer petal ends not closed, a pale wash has been added to the center indicating density. The rather strong borders have been done in a pencilled technique, a similar technique has been employed to the pomegranate leaves. The dots added with a wet brush don’t have outlines, this type of decoration was rather charmingly referred to as “blobby dots” by Sir Michael Butler. This vase flower vase is of a form and decoration are very much the type of vase that would appeal to the Chinese. This could well have adorned a Chinese scholar’s desk. There is a two character mark to the deeply cut base, it can be translated as ‘Pure Trinket’. The translation is in ‘The New & Revised Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics’ by Gerald Davison, see References.

There are a number of references to related pieces in : Leaping The Dragon Gate, The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain. Where a vase of this form with a woman at her desk is depicted, the blue and white decoration has additional copper-red details. The decoration has been link to dishes from the Zhonghe Tang group bearing cyclical date corresponding to 1671, 1672 or 1673. The vase is II.4.78a in the catalogue. See ‘References’.

See Below For More Photographs and Information.

SALE PENDING

Condition: In excellent condition.
Size: Height 20.4 cm (8 inches)
Provenance: Robert McPherson Antiques. The John Drew Collection. The John Drew Collection : John Drew was born in 1933 in Tideswell, Derbyshire, where his father was curate. The family moved to Norfolk whilst he was still a baby and his father became the rector of the parish of Intwood and Keswick. He was educated at Sedbergh School and after National Service in the R.A.F. being taught Russian, he went to Queens College, Oxford to read Greats (Classics). He spent nearly all his working life in various African countries as an archivist, moving to a post at Cape Town University in 1978. He remained in Cape Town after his retirement until his death in 2006. He had a great love of the English countryside (but not the climate) and this is shown in many of the pieces he collected. His taste was varied and ranged from Neolithic right through to the 18th Century. When we sent photograph to his home in Cape Town of pieces we thought he might be interested in, he would write long funny well observed letters back, wanting to add many of the items to his growing collection. Over the years we got to know him better and better, and during the last few years it was very rare for him to not want all the pieces we offered him. We knew his taste, even though his taste was so varied. This was in no small part because he had a very good eye and it was a pleasure finding things that interested him, because they were also very interesting to us. He never got to put his collection on display, something he hoped to do while on retirement in England, so it is with a mixture of pleasure and sadness that we offer these pieces from his collection this June. Each piece has a John Drew collection label, so when the collection is split up there will be some lasting record of the love and hard work he put into his two decades of collecting.
Stock number: 27430
References: A Closely Related Kangxi Miniature Fruit and Flower Vase, but smaller : 4 5/8 in. (11.8 cm.) high. From The Butler Famille Collection was sold at Christie's, Hong Kong on the 30th of November 2023 for HKD 60,480 equivalent to £5,700. See Information for a link to the Christie's Sale. There are a number of references to related pieces in : Leaping The Dragon Gate, The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain (Teresa Canepa and Katharine Butler. Published by Ad Ilissvm in 2021. ISBN 978-91268-16-3) see page 427, where a vase of this form with decoration including copper-red is shown. The decoration has been link to dishes from the Zhonghe Tang group bearing cyclical date corresponding to 1671, 1672 or 1673. The vase is II.4.78a in the catalogue. The two character mark to the base can be translated as 'Pure Trinket', see The New & Revised Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics' by Gerald Davison 2010. ISBN 978-0-9564518-0-4) page 60, mark number 388.