Footnotes

• Treasury 6, no. 1340
  
  瓷胎模製和尚形鼻煙壺
  景德鎮，1810-1870
  
  Enter the Dragon
  
  Yellow, green, aubergine, and black enamels on thin, colourless glaze on porcelain; moulded in the form of a monk, possibly intended to be Shegong, gazing upwards and holding an alms bowl above his left shoulder, the bowl being the opening to the bottle; the foot and interior unglazed
  Jingdezhen, 1810–1870
  Height: 5.86 cm
  Mouth: 0.6 cm
  Stopper: bronze
  
  Condition: stress cracks going up each main side, on the lower clothing (green) caused by the joint between the two mould halves, not obtrusive; normal wear under magnification. General relative condition: excellent
  
  Provenance:
  Robert Hall (1996)
  
  Published:
  Hall 1996, no. 20
  Antiques Bulletin, no. 650, 15–21 June 1996, cover
  JICSBS, Summer 1996, p. 1
  JICSBS, Winter 1998, front cover
  Treasury 6, no. 1340
  
  Commentary:
  This delightful and rare model is obviously made from a two-part mould and maintains the heritage of traditional, mid-Qing moulding techniques, even though the carved detail may owe a greater debt to early-nineteenth century carved porcelain techniques. The unglazed interior might endorse an early date, perhaps from the first decades of the nineteenth century, although some of the individual porcelain carvers of the mid-century continued to produce wares with unglazed interiors, notably Wang Bingrong.
  
  The ambiguity between enamels and glazes is represented here: there is a very thin wash of colourless glaze over the exposed head and arms of the figure that seems to run beneath the other colours, making them smoother at the surface than is usual for enamels placed directly onto the biscuit.
  
  The design concept is spectacular and the quality of the workmanship and enamelling equally convincing, putting the bottle in a class with the finest of the mid-Qing group. The stance is dynamic: the flick of the dangling ends of the monk's waistband opposes the diagonal thrust of his posture, and the position of the alms bowl is nothing short of brilliant. Instead of being held horizontal, as a lesser artist would probably have set it, the alms bowl perfectly offsets the lean of the body as if the monk were aiming his alms bowl at some specific point in the sky. If this figure depicts the monk Shegong, then he may well be doing precisely that, and the point in the sky would be where a dragon is flying. According to Liang gaoseng zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Buddhist Monks [Compiled in the] Liang Dynasty), Shegong was a Central Asian who travelled to Chang'an in 375 AD during the reign of Fu Jian (338–385). He had the ability to summon a rain dragon by reciting incantations. Whenever the country was afflicted by drought, Fu Jian ordered Shegong to send for the dragon. The fabulous creature would immediately appear, and the moment it had dived into Shegong's alms bowl, rain would pour down from the sky.
  
  Three other examples of this rare model are recorded. One is in the Denis Low collection (Kleiner 1999, no. 159; it came from Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 3 November 1994, lot 1021), another was in Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 20 June 1975, lot 56, and the third was in Sotheby's, London, 28 October 1969, lot 87. The other two are more elaborately enamelled, with patterns painted on the clothing. It is difficult to see whether they came from the same mould or not, because of the extensive surface cutting and enamelling that was done by hand, but all three are of sufficiently similar design that they may shared the same original mould. In any case, they must have all come from the same pottery.
  
  涉公下龍，實亦曠古之奇也
  
  瓷胎，無色薄釉，黃、綠、紫紅、黑色琺瑯彩；模印和尚形，有如涉公咒下神龍，其缽 當壺口
  景德鎮， 1810～1870 年
  高：5.86 厘米
  口經：0.6 厘米
  蓋：青銅
  
  狀態敘述：
  各正面有應力裂紋，在綠色的下裳的裂紋是因為模製的兩半坯接合處的關係，並不引人注目；放大後能看到一般性的磨損。總體的相對狀況： 極善
  
  來源:
  羅伯特．霍爾 (1996)
  
  文獻：
  Hall 1996, 編號20
  Antiques Bulletin, 650號，1996年6月15～21日，封面
  《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》(JICSBS)，1996年夏期，頁 1
  《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》(JICSBS)，1998年冬期，封面
  Treasury 6, 編號1340
  
  說明:
  《梁高僧傳》曰："涉公西域人也，以苻堅建元十一年至長安。能以秘咒，咒下神龍。每旱，堅常請之咒龍。俄而龍下缽中，天輒大雨。堅及群臣，就缽中觀之。咸嘆其異。"本形其他例子和詳細論述，請參閱本壺的英文說明。
  

---

Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

---

Auction terms and conditions