Decorated to the interior with four depictions of Ma Gu Xian Shou, all of which are arranged around a raised central boss. The outside is decorated with four groups of flowers, “The Flowers of the Four Seasons” which are painted below an outer border carved in a variation of the Linlong technique. Width: 19 cm
Purchased from the Jarras Collection, Christie’s King Street, June 1990, Lot 23. 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. Formed over ten years before the sales, the first part of which, comprising 113 lots, was sold by Christie’s in June 1990, with provenances cited in the catalogue of E T Chow, E Carew-Shaw, Sir Michael Butler, The Hatcher Collection, Martin-Hurst and Mottahedeh. The second part was sold in October 1991 at Christie’s Hong Kong.