Of rectangular shape and luted together in hollow sections with rectangular piercings at each side for attachment. This thick tile is decorated on one side with a scene from “The Romance of the Western Chamber” – “Xixiangji” within a crosshatched border. On the reverse is a landscape scene of a lone scholar on horseback followed by an attendant carrying his books, all within a double line border. Length 25.4 cm. Width 16.5cm. Depth 4.2 cm
Purchased from the: “Private Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain”, Gardiner Houlgate, The Bath Auction Rooms, England,
March 2011, Lot 330. The Avalon Collection. This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction. Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.