| OBJECT UNDER SPOTLIGHT | |
| January, 2001. | |
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Each month we feature a Chinese Work of Art that exhibits singularly outstanding historical and aesthetic characteristics and qualities.
This month we have selected VERY RARE FAMILLE ROSE VASE Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period (1723-1735) Height: 16 ˝ inches PROVENANCE: Cleveland Museum of Art, deaccessioned 2000 |
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| Sold | |
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This rare vase is decorated with two pairs of kingfishers, one pair perches on lotus plants, while the other clings to a sprig of millet. The kingfishers are painted in vibrant colors of green, blue, pink, and sienna brown with different types of brushstrokes used to represent the textures of the birds' feathers. Insects flit around the lotus blossoms and millet. The lotuses are painted in exquisite detail, a few with wilting leaves that curl up at the edges. The décor is reserved on a light background of tight sepia whorls. Around the mouth of the vase a foliate band is separated from the main décor by a narrow pink band and a blue and yellow ruyi band.
The lotus flower represents purity because it grows from the muck and mud of the bottom of a swamp to bloom in pure, clean colors of white, pink, and yellow. A famille rose vase with the same sepia whorl background is in Mrs. Patterson's Collection, in George C. Williamson's The Book of Famille Rose, plate LVI. If you would like more information on VERY RARE FAMILLE ROSE VASE, inventory # 1711, please click here. |
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