A FINE 'FAMILLE-VERTE' VASE QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD

the body of elegant tapering baluster form, rising from a short foot with recessed base to rounded shoulders and a tall waisted neck with everted rim, finely and brightly enamelled around the exterior with a continuous literary landscape scene, depicting a kneeling military figure holding up his sword to an elegant lady in a carriage, accompanied by equestrian figures, all below a band of four pomegranate and peach-shaped panels enclosing bamboo and reserved on a chrysanthemum head and green whorl ground, and a continuous river landscape scene at the neck

The present vase is an exquisite example of Kangxi wares of this elegant form that are usually painted with scenes taken from classical literature and mythology. The scene depicted on this vase, with the Great Wall in the background and a military official holding a sword while bowing in front of a group, appears to be from the historical novel Sanguo yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdom) by Luo Guanzhong written between 1330 and 1400. Sanguo yanyi tells the many stories and events of the turbulent years of the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220) and the Three Kingdoms period (220-265). It is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature in which Luo combined his historical knowledge with his gift for storytelling. 

The scene depicted on the present vase appears to show Cao Cao, Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty and one of the central figures in the novel, offering his sword as a gift. See a Kangxi saucer painted with this scene but Cao Cao offering his sword to a small group of generals, from the Butler Family Collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain. The Transitional Period, 1620-1683, Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, 1986, cat.no. 115. 

It is worth noting that classical scenes depicted on porcelain often combined several stories making the identification of each figure a difficult process. The female attendants equipped with arrows, painted on the present vase, are somewhat reminiscent of the famous Yang Family Generals, women who were trained in the martial arts and fought in battles. Apart from the Yang Family Generals it is rare to find paintings of women on horse back on Kangxi vessels.  

For an example of a Kangxi vase of this type see one illustrated in A.W. Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelains and Works of Art in China, London, 1911, pl. LXVI right, painted with the Eight Immortals; another related vase in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, included in He Li, Chinese Ceramics, London, 1996, pl. 641; and one from the Knight collection, exhibited at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28th November 1979, lot 152.

Compare also a vase painted with lady attendants, bequested by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, pl. 132; and two vases depicting a battle scene, one sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th May 1977, lot 206,  and the other sold in our New York rooms, 11th May 1978, lot 234, from the William L. Parker collection.