A pair of blue and white shallow plates, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662-1722).
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The central image depicting a hunting scene of noblemen and ladies armed with swords and lancers riding after hares in a landscape setting. There is a six –character Chengua mark to the base. With two landscape scenes in milky blue wash to the underside of each plate. In European silver shape. Diameter 19,5 cm.
Small firingdefects.
Provenance
Purchased form Geoffrey Waters.
The Avalon Collection Part II.
This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction.
Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.
Literature
For an almost identical example see The Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Ref: C.715 – 1910.
More information
A scene of mounted huntsmen and women is a very familiar subject on export porcelain of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The scenes usually depict Manchu hunters chasing their prey on horseback, with accompanying hawks and hounds.