 Colossal reddish-brown terracotta piggy bank
ST122.A colossal reddish-brown terracotta piggy bank of squat and corpulent form, the face humorous and smiling, with a long curling tail and a bell and chain around his neck.Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period.15th century.Length: 52 cm, 20 ½ ins.A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular use of coins in Java, a practice that became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Elephants are rare. Javanese money-boxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to household or village shrines.
|  A red terracotta piggy bank
A diminutive reddish-brown terracotta piggy bank of spherical form, with a smiling face and stubby legs.Eastern Javanese, Majapahit period, 15th-16th century.Length: 9 cms, 3 ½ ins.A long tradition of trade between China and Java culminated with the establishment of a trading colony in 1297. The Chinese were subsequently responsible for the first regular use of coins in Java, a practice that became widespread by the 15th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, large numbers of terracotta rams, turtles, frogs and pigs were made, all provided with a slot in the back for the insertion of copper coins. Pigs were particularly popular because of their association with prosperity and were modelled with great care, usually wearing heavy necklaces and consisting of short, squat legs supporting great fat bodies. Elephants are rare. Javanese moneyboxes were unlikely to have been owned by individuals and probably had a ritual function, attached to household or village shrines.
|  UNGLAZED POTTERY MODEL OF A CAMEL Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 1.UNGLAZED POTTERY MODEL OF A CAMEL. CHINA.TANG DYNASTY.618 - 907 AD. L: 59 CMS, 23 INS.H: 74 CMS, 29 INS. A magnificent pottery model of a Bactrian camel with a foreign rider, probably a Sogdian groom, seated with his arms raised as if grappling with the reins, dressed in characteristic full length Central Asian jacket with wide lapels and long boots, his bearded face with large eyes under bushy brows, a large beaked nose and a thick curling moustache, astride a large detachable saddle bag slung between the camel’s humps, rendered in accurate detail with various attachments including a flask and rabbit skin to each side, the animal superbly modelled as if striding forwards with beautifully sculpted head, the braying mouth wide open to reveal realistically rendered teeth, palate and tongue, with wide eyes and flaring nostrils, the upturned neck with bushy mane, the strong slender legs with well delineated tendons and padded feet, the dark grey earthenware body with traces of white slip remaining. For travellers and merchants along the Silk Road, camels provided the most dependable means of transportation, as they were able to carry heavy loads and survive the rigours of thirst, heat and cold. They have often been described as ‘Ships of the Desert’. Heading west, camel cargoes contained silk, but also ceramics, spices and tea. On the return trips they were loaded with treasures from the western world including gold, coloured glass, pigments for glazes and exotic furs. For a comparable figure of a camel with a Central Asian rider, see fig. 241 in Hao Qian et al, Out of China’s Earth: Archeological Discoveries in the People’s Republic of China. London: Frederick Muller; Beijing : China Pictorial, 1981. A remarkable example of a unglazed camel with rider holding an owl was sold at Sotheby’s in New York, March 2002, for US$412,750, Lot no 55, sale no N07771. For a detailed history of pottery figures of camels, see E. R. Knauer, The Camel’s Load in Life and Death, Zurich: Akanthus, 1998.Age verified by four point Oxford Thermoluminescence Test C106j52.PROVENANCE: Private French collection.
|  QINGBAI COSMETIC BOX AND COVER Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 15.QINGBAI COSMETIC BOX AND COVER.CHINA.SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY.1127 – 1279 AD .D. 8 CMS, 3 1/8 INS. A porcelain box and cover of circular form, the slightly domed cover mould stamped and sculpted with a spray of flowers within a foliate rim, a pale blue (Qingbai) glaze covering the lid and sides of the base, leaving the rims and base unglazed to show the white clay body. Women of the Song dynasty favoured small boxes to contain different cosmetic materials. For a similar box decorated with flowers see fig. 290, page 161, He Li, Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, 1996. There are comparable examples of cosmetic boxes in the British Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Barlow Collection, University of East Sussex; all illustrated as plates 100, 103, 104 and 105 in Stacey Pierson, Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Percival David Foundation of Art, 2002. PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Acquired by the owner’s father during employment with the British Foreign Service during the 1950s or 1960s.
|  GREEN GLAZED YUEYAO CARVED BOWL Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 18.GREEN GLAZED YUEYAO CARVED BOWL.CHINA.SOUTHERN DYNASTIES.420 - 589 AD.H. 12.7 CMS, 5 INS. A globular jar, finely carved and incised around the body with beautiful overlapping lotus petals, the interior and exterior covered in a finely crackled pale olive green glaze; the glaze pooling to the base to reveal a pale grey porcellaneous body. During this period freely carved, overlapping lotus petals appear quite frequently on celadon vessels such as bowls, jars and vases. PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Acquired by the owner’s father during employment with the British Foreign Service during the 1950s or 1960s.
|  LONGQUAN CELADON BOWL Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 19.LONGQUAN CELADON BOWL.CHINA.SHANXI PROVINCE.SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY.12TH - 13TH CENTURY.H. 7 CMS, 2 ¾ INS.D. 18.4 CMS, 7 3/16 INS.A longquan celadon bowl, the exterior moulded with lotus petals at the base beneath a floral band at the rim, the interior with a single incised peony spray within a central medallion, the soft sea-green glaze suffused with clear crackle and thinning to white at various parts of the moulding.Longquan wares were mostly decorated with a greenish glaze and were made at kilns centred in the Longquan area of southern Zhejiang province, from the Song to the early Qing dynasty.For a similar bowl see fig. 269, He Li, Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, 1996. There is also a similar example in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. PROVENANCE: Private French collection.Previously sold at Christies Hong Kong, 18th March 1991, Lot 507.
|  PORCELAIN FAMILLE VERTE SAUCER DISH
CATALOGUE NO. 22.PORCELAIN FAMILLE VERTE SAUCER DISH.CHINA.KANGXI PERIOD, 1662-1722.D. 34.5 CMS, 13 ½ INS.A fine porcelain saucer dish brightly decorated in famille verte enamels, showing a court scene depicting the Emperor and his officials seated at a table enjoying an acrobatic display, all supported on a short tapering double foot-ring. For a famille verte dish of similar size but with a different story depicted see plate 173, page 159, Christian J. A. Jorg, Chinese Ceramics in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997. Compare also to a much larger famille verte dish decorated with the Tang Emperor Xuanzong, illustrated as plate 35, page 58, Recent Acquistions, Marchant and Son, 2002.PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Formerly in the collection of Dr Fleischer, Berlin, purchased in 1990 (by repute).
|  BLUE AND WHITE KRAAK PORCELAIN CHARGER Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 23.BLUE AND WHITE KRAAK PORCELAIN CHARGER.CHINA.WANLI PERIOD.1573-1619.D. 50 CMS, 20 INS.A magnificent Kraak porcelain charger, with slightly scalloped flat rim, the rounded, shallow cavetto painted in underglaze blue, the centre depicting a beautiful basket of flowers, the surrounding border divided into characteristic narrow panels with Buddhist emblems and wider panels alternating with phoenixes, sunflowers and auspicious symbols, the underside with fan-shaped cartouches between bands, the base recessed.Kraak porcelain was named after Portuguese merchant ships (carracks), intercepted and captured at sea by the Dutch during the early to mid 17th century. This type of porcelain was produced mainly in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces or in the coastal areas of China, and carracks transported it to Europe. Dishes of this type were referred to in VOC records as ‘lampetschotels’ (basins). For a dish of similar size see plate 40, page 59, Christiaan J. A. Jorg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997.PROVENANCE: Private English collection.
|  UNGLAZED POTTERY EARTH SPIRIT Current and Past Exhibitions
Catalogue no. 12.UNGLAZED POTTERY EARTH SPIRITCHINATANG DYNASTY, 618 – 907H. 54 CMS, 21 INSA dynamic, unglazed pottery earth spirit, superbly carved in a rampant posture of defiance, with his right hand raised and his left grappling with a poisonous toad, the ferocious looking guardian beast sporting long flame like spikes all along its spine rising above a face with bulging eyes and curly beard, its muscular body and legs suppressing the movement of a supine boar at his feet, the whole group resting on a rock said to represent the Buddhist celestial mountain, Mount Sumeru, finely painted pigments to the chest and lower body in the form of large leafy white flowerheads remaining. Earth spirits were placed in pairs inside the entrance of a tomb acting as guardian beasts. Early, Sui dynasty examples were simply modelled but by the 8th century of the Tang dynasty, as is seen here, the expressions and accoutrements had become more exaggerated. For a closely related example see page 53, plate 42, J. Baker, Seeking Immortality, Santa Ana, California, 1996. See also number 152 in Selected Tang Tomb Figurines Excavated in Shaanxi Province, Beijing, 1958. Age verified by Oxford thermoluminescence test.
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