A large and rare underglaze-blue and copper-red 'butterfly and flower' basin, Qing dynasty, Early Kangxi period | 清康熙初 青花釉裏紅蝶戀花圖盆

Marchant, London, 28th May 1985.

Collection of Julia and John Curtis.

Christie's New York, 16th March 2015, lot 3580.

來源：

馬錢特，倫敦，1985年5月28日

Julia 及 John Curtis 伉儷收藏

紐約佳士得2015年3月16日，編號3580

Kangxi Underglaze Blue and Copper-Red, Marchant, London, 2016, cat. no. 2.

展覽：

《康熙青花釉裏紅》，馬錢特，倫敦，2016年，編號2

Charmingly depicting a praying mantis on rockwork beneath branches of prunus with a butterfly in flight to the left, the present basin is rare on account of its handsome form and its masterfully painted nature scene. An exemplary example of its kind, the basin represents the height of ceramic production at the kilns during the early Kangxi period, where they were able to fire large, heavily potted ceramics of this kind as well as skillfully manipulate the cobalt and copper-oxide pigment to fire vibrant blues and bright reds as seen on the present basin.

Only a few of these large basins appear to be recorded and amongst the few, two are dated by inscription with a Zhonghe tang hall mark. See a closely related basin, with a similarly decorated rim and cavetto as well as the same channeled foot, but decorated with a figural scene to the interior, in the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF653), and included in Rosemary Scott, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration: Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, pl. 110. The base of the basin is inscribed with a dated Zhonghe tang hall mark, translating to 'made in the xinhai year of the Kangxi reign for the Zhonghe hall', corresponding to the year 1671. Another dated example, formerly in the S. Winkworth Collection, is now in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and illustrated in Katherine Butler and Theresa Canepa, Leaping the Dragon Gate. The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain, London, 2021, p. 418. Decorated with a scene from the Romance of the Western Chamber, the cavetto and rim are again similarly decorated with the base bearing the same inscription as the British Museum basin. Another basin, unmarked and decorated to the interior with a 'Master of the Rocks'-style landscape scene, is in the Sir Michael Butler Collection, illustrated in ibid., pp 416-417.