Karbury

Exquisite Pair of Kangxi Vases

08 September, 2018 | 10:00 AM PST

Lot-384

Lot: 384

Exquisite Pair of KangxiVases

Ease vase is a mirror image of the other, reflecting the preferred porcelain decoration that was becoming popular during late Kangxi reign (1662-1722 AD). This body is made of high density, very fine but not very white clay, commonly called "Ro Mi Tai" (body made of sticky-rice flour). Their shape is called "Hua Gu" and is discussed in Ben Bao Chan's book "Identification of Ming and Qing Porcelain. As result of natural aging over 300 years, the glaze has lost surface glassy shine of newly fired porcelain, and is not sticky to touch, unlike the surface of glazed porcelain that is newly fired, which is sticky. The underglaze cobalt blue is beautiful and yet subdue, not to appear to float new the surface of the glaze, which is a feature of later imitations wares. The red is intense, opaque, and not protruding out of the glaze surface. It has a color like ripe Chinese date (to borrow the description of 1933's book "Guidelines for Chinese Antiques). This is a feature of Kangxi iron red enamel. The green is bright, thick and protruding above the glaze. The motif of a dragon flying among clouds above splashing sea wave, was a very popular porcelain decoration of the mid to late Kangxi reign, which lasted 60 years.

Size: 10 1/4 in. (26 cm.) h x 5 1/2 in. (14 cm.) dia.

Provenance: From an important California collector, whose grandfather was a major antique dealer during late Qing Dynasty and early Republic, and was a patron of painters Wu Changshuo and Huang Binhong