A FINE POWDERBLUE-GROUND FAMILLE VERTE VASE AND COVER

Description:

China, in ink inscribed inventory mark inside the cover N 122..13 and inventory number, Kangxi period
H. 44,3 cm
The body decorated with three large shaped panels enclosing a phoenix flying above flowers issuing from rockwork and a duck in a pond, antiques and vases with smaller panels variously enclosing flowers issuing from rockwork on a powder blue ground, the cover similarly decorated.
From a private collection in southern Germany, collected in the 1970s and 80s, Bernheimer collection label to base, two worn labels from an exhibtion in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam inside at the cover with another label (maybe Christie's or Sotheby's London 1.3.1976, Lot 26)
For a similar example see the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Accession Number: 1955-50-257a,b. The Western term "powder blue" was coined in reference to the technique used to create these pieces; the glaze was applied as a powder blown through a bamboo tube onto the body while the small panels which were to be later decorated were covered during this process. Another similar vase from the Richard Bennett collection is illustrated in Edgar Gorer and J.F. Blacker, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstone, Vol. 2., London, 1911, pl. 153; and also in Catalogue of the Collection of Old Chinese Porcelains of Richard Bennett, Esq. Thornby Hall, Northampton, London, 1913, cat no. 169, identified as one of a pair. The pair can now be found at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, acc. nos LL6113 and LL6114.
Very minor wear, good condition