£50,000
A RARE FAMILLE VERTE LANTERN
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
康熙五彩“蕭何月下追韓信”故事圖燈籠
the exterior of the lantern is delicately enamelled in the famille verte palette with a scene of Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moonlight. The cylindrical neck and base are decorated with medallions containing flowers and scrolls all on a seeded green ground.
22.5cm high
NOTE: The story of Xiao He’s chase is recorded in both the Shiji - "Records of the Grand Historian" and the Hanshu - "Book of Han". Towards the end of the Qin Dynasty in 206 BC, Han Xin was working in a lowly position in the army of Liu Bang – the founder of the Han Dynasty. However he had become disillusioned, as despite his great military talents, he was neither trusted nor promoted and so decided to leave Liu’s force. On hearing of his desertion, Liu’s Chancellor Xiao He (d.193 BC), chased after him in order to persuade him to return, which Han Xin did on the promise of being recommended to Liu Bang. This famous event is remembered as “ Xiao He chasing after Han Xin in the Moonlight” and was adapted to dramatic form in the Yuan dynasty
PROVENANCE: Acquired From Christie’s, Paris, December 2014, Lot 22.
The Collection of Alfred Trapnell.
In “An Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Porcelain and Pottery Forming the Collection of Mr Alfred Trapnell: Volume II” produced in 1906 the lantern is listed as item No: 497 and accompanied with the following narrative "A Chinese Lantern of thin egg-shell porcelain mounted on the back of a carved wood elephant, beautifully ornamented in Famille Verte. Round the body are officials on horseback with running attendants, the spaces between filled in with landscapes. The whole stands 22 inches high. Kang He period, 1661-1722. See Illustration, plate LXXXV".
With Frank Partridge & Sons Ltd, London.
The Collection of His Royal Highness The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1900 – 1974).
His Royal Highness, The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Thistle and the last Knight of St Patrick, fifth in line to succession to his great grandmother, Queen Victoria, Empress of India, was born to King George V and Queen Mary on 31st March 1900. Prince Henry was the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II and the youngest brother of King Edward VIII and King George VI.
The Prince had many royal duties. In 1925 he was made a Privy Councillor and in 1929 he was assigned The Garter mission where he travelled to Asia for the first time. The mission began in Japan and the Prince was honoured with Japan’s highest order, Order of the Chrysanthemum. His later travels took him through Cairo, Aden, Colombo, Hong Kong and Canada.
In 1935 he married Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch - an old friend of his father’s – and sister of his closest friend, Lord William Scott. Three years later, The Duke and his family moved to Barnwell Manor near Peterborough which was a property previously owned by the Buccleuch family.
According to his obituary in The Times he had a “splendid collection of Chinese porcelain” and also collected sporting books and drawings. He sold 31 lots of pottery and porcelain with, additionally, works of art, at Christie’s on 20 May 1954, mostly famille verte and rose figures, and figures on the enamelled biscuit, the two provenances being recorded: Trapnell and Geoffrey Duveen. He was also a client of Spinks.
Frank Partridge (1875 – 1953) was a dealer in Chinese art with offices initially at 26 King Street, London SW1 and 741 Fifth Avenue, New York. After these offices were bombed in 1944, the company relocated to 144-146 New Bond Street. The son of Robert and Eliza Partridge who owned a bookmaking business in Hertfordshire, Frank founded Partridges in 1900. He was a respected and trusted dealer to many eminent collectors, not least Sir William Burrell and was fortunate to survive the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915, unlike his friend and companion, Edgar Gorer. Partridge lent his collection to the 1935-36 International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy. Partridge’s received the Royal Warrant as Purveyors of fine art to Queen Mary, who was a frequent visitor to the galleries.
Alfred Trapnell (1838 – 1917) was a smelter and refiner, of Clifton, Bristol, and later of Bournemouth. He had formerly been a sea captain trading to the East, where he developed a taste for porcelain. Over a thirty year period he built up major collections of Chinese porcelain, Worcester porcelain and Bristol and Plymouth porcelains, all of which he sold, earning him the epithet of having “probably sold more collections than any man living”. He produced catalogues of both his Chinese, and Bristol and Plymouth collections. He sold the Chinese collection for a sum said to be £30,000 to Gorer, who issued the Trapnell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain in 1906.
RELATED EXAMPLE: A prunus vase in the Nanjing Municipal Museum, Jiangsu Province. It was unearthed from the Muying Tomb at Niushou Mountain in Jiangning County. The main character, Xiao He, wearing a putout (a separate set of hats for officials and academics in ancient China) and light armour, is on a galloping horse. On the other side of the vase, Xiao He, wearing a robe, is taking a horse to water by its bridle.
The lantern is in good condition with the vibrant drawing showing great fluidity. There is a thin hairline crack to the mouth rim – measuring approximately 2.5 cm long. The interior of the body has two unobtrusive star cracks
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