A QUADRANGULAR FAMILLE-VERTE 'DEER' VASE QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD |

the stoutly potted square-section body with tapered rectangular sides supporting a waisted cylindrical neck and everted rim, each side painted in bright enamels with deer frolicking beneath towering pines in vertiginous landscapes, the stags, doe, and fawn variously nibbling lingzhi and leaves, nestling in the grasses, and ambling along banks and footbridges, the shoulder with four large polychrome butterflies amidst prunus blossom against a speckled green ground, the neck with a solitary figure sitting on a riverbank contemplating the surrounding mountainous landscape, the partially unglazed foot centered with a recessed square with a beribboned artemisia leaf in underglaze-blue, coll. no. 363.

Alberto Varela Santos, London, 2002.

The vase in overall good condition with scattered frits, some restored, to rim, corners and along edges.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

'Hundred deer' vases in famille-verte enamels are unusual and no other example of the present form is known. Successful potting of square forms was a notorious challenge. Square-section porcelain vases first appear in the late Ming dynasty. In order to survive the firing, thicker walls were required to reinforce lute lines. The Kangxi period rendering of this ambitious form attests to the confidence and technical prowess of the potters who not only rose to the challenge of the form but surpassed earlier versions with longer tapering sides joined by clean right angles and surmounted by a gently flaring cylindrical mouth. A related famille-verte enameled vase of the same form, but with bird and flower decoration, bearing an apocryphal Jiajing mark, in the Shanghai Museum Collection is illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 103.