A SMALL FAMILLE VERTE RECTANGULAR DISH CHENGHUA MARK, KANG...

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Hammer

£3,000

Fees

A SMALL FAMILLE VERTE RECTANGULAR DISH
CHENGHUA MARK, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
康熙五彩人物故事圖紋四方碟
the dish has a square base with the sides shelving outwards and is painted with over glaze enamels in the famille verte palette. The base has a glazed incised Chengua mark surrounded by a glazed foot.
8cm wide

NOTE: All four of the everted square sides are painted with scenes taken from Book One of the Xixiangji - “The Romance of the Western Chamber”. This was an eight-book adaption by the thirteenth century playwright Wang Shifu (c. 1250 – 1300), of the well-known love story – Xixiangji zhugongdiao – "The Story of the Western Wing in all Keys and Modes”.

In Book One the impoverished student Zhang Gong sets out with his servant to the capital in order to sit his examinations. On the way they stay one night at a monastery outside the walls of the city of Puzhou. Whilst Zhang is being shown around by the Abbott - here seen dressed in yellow robes – he encounters the beautiful Cui Yingying who is staying there with her widowed mother. He meets Yingying while she is contemplating the moon and recites a poem to her.

PROVENANCE: Acquired from Guest & Gray, London.