A powder-blue-ground blue and white 'Zhang Qian on raft' rouleau vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period | 清康熙 灑藍地開光青花張騫乘槎圖棒槌瓶

English private collection.

Bluett & Sons Ltd., London (label).

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英國私人收藏

Bluett & Sons，倫敦 (標籤)

This vase is painted with two rectangular panels enclosing the Western Han dynasty Imperial envoy Zhang Qian seated on his dragon-form log raft, and the reverse with a pair of geese amongst rockwork and reeds in typical marriage of historical narratives and decorative subjects characteristic of the Kangxi period.

A garniture containing a pair of powder blue ground rouleau vases decorated with panels, formerly in the collection of Andringa de Kempenaer transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1954 is illustrated by Christiaan J.A. Jorg in Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, London, no. 152, pp. 142/3. For a pair of almost identical vases, see Chinese Blue and White Porcelain from the Pullan Collection, Pullan Collection, Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1998, col. pl. 52.