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Ceramics
Property from a Sonoma County Collection
Property from a Sonoma County Collection
Lot 8205
a Set of four polychrome enameled plaques Republic period
28 June 2016, 12:00 PDT
San FranciscoSold for US$221,000 inc. premium
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a Set of four polychrome enameled plaques
Republic period
Each of wide rectangular section and depicting a different bird amid colorful seasonal foliage below a four character inscription; the first depicting a green feathered bird about to feast upon a small insect and clutching a stalk of bamboo blooming from a frond of chrysanthemums, the inscription reading dongli lengyan ['the lurid cold of the eastern hedge'] with seals reading Pan and [?] zhu; the second depicting a long thin beaked bird gripping the stem of a lotus plant weighed down by the massive blossom and the intricately rendered mangled leaf beside it, below an inscription reading liantang faqu ['the dharmic path of the lotus pond'], bearing seals reading ding jun and tao hua; the third depicting a long tailed russet colored bird staring into the distance and perched upon a gnarled branch of yellow tiny blossoms, possibly a mustard tree, inscribed yi gai mei shou ['to benefit aged brows'] with seal gu huan; the last depicting a bird singing amid a sparse group of possibly apple blossoms, the inscription reading hua xing sheng li ['art evokes that within the voice'] with seals reading bai shi.
9 1/4 x 14 1/2in (23.5 x 37cm) visible dimensions of porcelain
Each of wide rectangular section and depicting a different bird amid colorful seasonal foliage below a four character inscription; the first depicting a green feathered bird about to feast upon a small insect and clutching a stalk of bamboo blooming from a frond of chrysanthemums, the inscription reading dongli lengyan ['the lurid cold of the eastern hedge'] with seals reading Pan and [?] zhu; the second depicting a long thin beaked bird gripping the stem of a lotus plant weighed down by the massive blossom and the intricately rendered mangled leaf beside it, below an inscription reading liantang faqu ['the dharmic path of the lotus pond'], bearing seals reading ding jun and tao hua; the third depicting a long tailed russet colored bird staring into the distance and perched upon a gnarled branch of yellow tiny blossoms, possibly a mustard tree, inscribed yi gai mei shou ['to benefit aged brows'] with seal gu huan; the last depicting a bird singing amid a sparse group of possibly apple blossoms, the inscription reading hua xing sheng li ['art evokes that within the voice'] with seals reading bai shi.
9 1/4 x 14 1/2in (23.5 x 37cm) visible dimensions of porcelain
Footnotes
民國 彩釉花鳥紋瓷板四片 潘陶宇款
Provenance
Purchased in China before 1949 and thereafter by descent to the present owner
The seals Gu Huan and Dingjun are found on works by the ceramicist Pan Taoyu (1887-1926). The seminal Brush and Clay: Chinese Porcelain of the Early 20th Century [Ciyi yu Huayi: Ershi Shiji Qianqi de Zhongguo Ciqi] (Urban Council: Hong Kong 1990) describes Pan as the crucial link between the Qianjiangcai artists of the late Qing and the Republic-era Eight Friends of Zhushan. Both innovative and elegant, his work was compared to that of revered painters Hua Yan and Yun Shouping. This renown created a crushing workload that his unfortunately small output was unable to satisfy. These are the circumstances that his grand-nephew believed led to his tragic early demise before the age of 40.
Whether by the hand of Pan, one of his later Republic-era admirers, or by one of the numerous students in his atelier (who included notably the accomplished bird and flower painters Liu Yucen and Cheng Yiting among others); the four plaques in this lot do seem to reflect a mournful understanding of one's all too short human mortality. The bird in the chrysanthemum plaque is depicted devouring a helpless insect; the lotus leaf in that plaque is mangled and seems to barely cling to its ephemeral existence in a manner consonant with the Buddhist inscription; and the bird in the apple blossom plaque is painted mouth agape, mid-song and perhaps mid-epiphany as the inscription would suggest. But most poignant of all is the bird clutching to a branch with yellow blossoms, puzzlingly, what appears to be a mustard tree. Though ostensibly a quote from the Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing), the way the calligraphy is rendered and a different reading of the second character of the inscription as hinted at by the small yellow buds, leads one to read the inscription yi jie kan shou or 'see longevity like a mustard seed.' The inscription suggesting that with wisdom, the entire length of one's years can be regarded as something minuscule and insignificant--as trifling as the mustard seed grabbing the entirety of the bird's attention.
Though works by the hand of Pan Taoyu are rare, three bird and flower examples are published in Innovations and Creations: a Retrospect of 20th Century Porcelain from Jingdezhen (Chinese University of Hong Kong: 2004) see nos. 25-27. Note the similarity to the treatment of the chrysanthemums to the present lot. In Brush and Clay (op cit.), p. 148, there is a cong-form vase which notably is inscribed with a variant of the same quotation from the Classic of Poetry as alluded to above. Bonhams New Bond Street offered a pair of fan-shaped plaques by the hand of Pan Taoyu as cover lot 569 in their sale 18981, The Anthony Evans Collection of Later Chinese Porcelain, 10 November 2011. These fan plaques were of similar subject matter, with notably similar calligraphy--see the nearly identically idiosyncratic rendering of the character hua.