A Chinese Famille-Verte 'Romance of the Western Chamber' Rouleau Vase, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period

The Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiangji) is one of the most popular love tales in Chinese literature. The most famous iteration of this story is associated with the Yuan dynasty dramatist and playwright Wang Shifu. The drama was exceptionally popular in the late Ming and early Qing periods, including at the Shunzhi and Kangxi courts. As such, it was a frequent motif on porcelains of the period, with imagery adapted from woodblock prints like those by Chen Hongshou (1598-1652). 

The present vase is exquisitely painted and enameled, with variously shaped reserves enclosing scenes from the drama and some with poetic inscriptions, all on an elaborate fish-roe, lotus, and chilong scroll ground. Compare a similar vase illustrated in R.L. Hobson, Catalogue of the Leonard Gow Collection of Chinese Porcelain, London, 1931, pl. XXIX. Another, with panels on an iron-red and gilt ground, also with a scene of the lovers leaving each other, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, May 16, 1977, lot 202. For similar vases, but with panels enclosing birds and beasts, compare two included in Catalogue of the Collection of Old Chinese Porcelains formed by Richard Bennett, Esq., London, 1913, cat. nos 339 and 341.