COHEN & COHEN
IMPORTANT SALES

A PAIR OF LEOPARDS

Kangxi, circa 1720
Imperial?
Overall length 39 inches (99 cm)

Sold to a private collection

Ex Champalimaud Collection.
Ex Florence J Gould Collection
By repute sold in Paris in the 1950s from a private collection that also included three tigers.

A large pair of animal figures well modelled in the form of crouching leopards, enamelled in yellow and black over biscuit porcelain, the tails detachable. 		A PAIR OF LEOPARDS

A PAIR OF LEOPARDS

A PAIR OF LEOPARDS

These appear to be unique though they compare closely with three recorded models of standing tigers which have similar enamels, detachable tails and are the same size. They would have presented considerable technical difficulties in the firing and the surface of these leopards has circular marks where clay stilts were attached to them to stabilise them in the kilns.
Leopards are rare in Chinese art, first known in the Han dynasty (206BC - 220AD) and appearing occasionally on later bronze and enamelled metalwares. Sometimes their image is associated with a man and the connection between man and leopard seems to be significant in early Chinese mythology. Leopards, being smaller than tigers, have to rely on cunning and courage in equal measure and this sets an example for man.
They are emblematic of bravery and often appear associated with tigers. In the Ming a leopard was embroidered on the robes of military officials of the third grade. However in the Qing leopards are almost unknown in Chinese art, though tigers occur regularly (see the pair of soldier vases). However the rouleau vase in this catalogue does clearly show a leopard which is surprisingly similar to these models.
These are realistically modelled, possibly from live specimens in the menagerie of the Emperor Kangxi. The menagerie was in the Sanbeizi Gardens in Beijing, named after the Emperor Kangxi’s third son Prince Cheng Yin (it was Kangxi’s fourth son Yongzheng who succeeded him as Emperor).
The two most likely species are the Manchurian Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) and the Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) both found in Northern China from where the rulers of the Qing dynasty originated. They are both now rare because of significant habitat loss. The Chinese leopard population is now around 2,500 and the Manchurian Leopard is less than fifty, most left in the Amur Valley in Russia.

REFERENCES:
HOWARD, David S (1997) A Tale of Three Cities, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, p134, Cat 70, the single tiger.

 

 

A FAMILLE ROSE BOWL, COVER AND STAND

Qianlong, c 1750
European Market
Diameter: Bowl 5 1/2 inches (11.4cm)

Purchased by a Museum

An extremely rare famille rose bowl, cover and stand after a Canton enamel original, each piece painted with a mythological scene on an elaborate ground.

This remarkable and rare piece carries the same decoration as a small group of extremely fine enamels on copper, which were originally thought to be work from the Peking enamel workshops but are now considered the work of Cantonese craftsmen.

The designs on this piece are from mythological paintings which were popular in the seventeenth century and the central theme is one of pastoral fecundity and Arcadian symbolism with a suppressed eroticism showing Cybele in a chariot, the female goddesses Ceres, Pomona and Flora and Vertumnus, the god of Seasons, and Pomona with two dogs.

 

A MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE CISTERN, COVER AND BASIN

Qianlong c1738
Dutch market
Cistern, height: 68.5 cm (27 inches)
Basin, length: 66 cm (26 inches)

Sold to a private collection.

A Chinese export famille rose baluster cistern and cover on flat base, with a thick rim and domed cover with finial, decorated in polychrome enamels with a Chinese archer in four elaborate cartouches, each with a shell above and a mask below, the masks connected by a floral garland. Between the cartouches the cistern has been decorated with butterflies, the shoulder and cover with a lappet pattern. The large oval basin has a swelling body narrowing into a horizontal waist and a wide everted rim on a high splayed foot with recessed base and painted with four masks with scrolls connected by a garland and a rosette on either side, the foot with a lappet border and a pattern on small squares and the inside with four large peony sprays and butterflies.

Pronk porcelain is one of the classic genres of Chinese export porcelain collecting and is much sought after by the cognoscenti. It illustrates perfectly the collision and miscegenation of styles between the Occident and the Orient and the porcelains produced are

some of the highest quality export items ever made. Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) was commissioned in 1734 by the Delft chamber of the Dutch East India Company to produce designs for the decoration of porcelains to be made in China.

A MASSIVE ARMORIAL CHARGER

Yongzheng c 1723
French market
Diameter: 21 ½ inches (54.5 cm)

Purchased by a Museum.

A massive armorial charger decorated in verte-Imari enamels with a central armorial, the cavetto having four floral panels reserved on a gilt scrolling lotus ground, the rim with four bowls of fruit on lotus bases and four medallions, two with lotus and two with silk-worms. The outer rim having scrolling gilt borders.

The arms are of France, for Louis XV.

This is the largest known charger from this service, an example in the Louvre being slightly smaller.

A PRONK URN AND COVER
‘THE DOCTOR’S VISIT’

Qianlong, c 1736
Dutch Market

Purchased by a Museum.
A PRONK URN AND COVER ‘THE DOCTOR’S VISIT’

‘The Doctor’s Visit to the Emperor’ was probably the second drawing done by Cornelis Pronk for the VOC in 1735 and, like all his others, portrayed a very Western view of life in China. The design arrived in Canton in 1737 and presented the supercargoes responsible for placing the porcelain order with a problem familiar from the first design, ‘La Dame au Parasol’. The designs were highly detailed and therefore very expensive to produce, especially in such large pieces as this urn and the supercargoes dared only to place a small order. A second, slightly larger order was placed the following year, but in 1739 another less detailed version of the design, omitting the standing figure, as sent to Canton in the hope of reducing the price of production. The supercargoes took this second design from dealer to dealer but were unable to obtain a satisfactory reduction in the price and reported that they would not be placing an order. The records of the VOC show, however, that a large order of 60 dinner services of 371 pieces, thirty more of 94 pieces and 830 pieces of tea wares was placed after all. Strangely, pieces of the second design are now much less common than pieces of the first despite having been ordered in far larger numbers.

TOPOGRAPHICAL PUNCH BOWL WITH COVER AND STAND


Qianlong, c 1745
Swedish Market

Purchased by a Museum.
TOPOGRAPHICAL PUNCH BOWL WITH COVER AND STAND

Among the earliest to send special orders for pieces of European interest the Swedes had a particular fondness for commemorative and topographical subjects and this bowl, cover and stand appears to display both. It is one of a group of such bowls, covers and stands which appear to have been made in very small numbers for a number of Swedish land owners. Among those identified are a bowl stand depicting the castle of Läckö on Lake Vänern and a bowl and cover showing the castles at Tavastehus and Nynäs on opposite sides, both in the Metropolitan Museum, New York and a further bowl stand depicting the old church at Uppsala, late of the Hervouët Collection. The only known complete bowl, cover and stand previous to this example also depicts the castle at Nynäs and is in the Powel house in Philadelphia.

The owner of this bowl wished not only to record his country house but also an important event in its history, almost certainly a Royal Visit.

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Chinese, Japanese porcelain, satsuma, imari, oriental porcelain, chinese porcelain, antique porcelain, export porcelain, chinese export