Pair of Chinese porcelain blue and white square flasks and covers, Early Kangxi, c. 1680

A pair of Chinese porcelain blue and white square flasks and covers each painted with four different scenes, probably from the story of Yang Yi and her family, Yang Jia Jiang Yanji, with scenes of her in full armour on horseback, holding two swords aloft and going into battle while another army flees, another with her meeting a general, another of ministers meeting a general, and a further scene with her seated in formal military attire at a table while her soldiers bring in a prisoner naked to the waist with his hands tied behind his back, all within triangular diaper borders, with a wan character ground at the shoulder, and flowering branches on the neck, with different matched covers, one with key-fret and fish panels, the other with lozenge and ruyi heads, the finials with a fu character, good fortune. The unglazed bases revealing the biscuit body with recessed glazed square centres, each with a ribbon tied leaf mark in underglaze blue.

12 ¼ inches, 31.1 cm high.

Early Kangxi, c. 1680.

• Formerly in an American private collection.
• A similar pair in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, are illustrated by Christian J.A. Jörg in Chinese Cermamics in the Rijksmuseum, no. 79, pp. 91-92, inv. no. AK-NM 6698, Bequest of the widow of J.T. Royer to King William I, 1814. Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1883.
• A near identical pair sold at Christie’s Amsterdam 21st-22 nd September 2010, lot 387.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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