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Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 29-CS
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AUCTION -
29-CS
This pair of very large iron-red and famille
verte rouleau vases, Kangxi period (1662-1722),
finely enameled with a continuous scene of
ladies at leisure in a garden pavilion, underglaze
blue double circle to bases, 28" high, sold for
$52,500 (est. $30,000/50,000) to Michael Cohen
of Cohen & Cohen, underbid on the phone.
Known as country house porcelain, large pieces
such as these once decorated English country
houses, Amsterdam townhouses, and Newport
ballrooms and are still bought by those who are
filling large spaces today.
This rare Qianlong period (1736-95) bombé
porcelain snuffbox depicts
a
Biblical subject. It is
enameled with scenes from the life of Joseph on the
top, underside, and cover interior. At 4" long, it sold
for $32,500 (est. $10,000/15,000), a record price for
a Chinese export snuffbox. It is one of three or four
Joseph snuffboxes known. One sold for $21,720 at
Christie’s, London, on April 26, 2016.
This Qianlong period (1736-95)
famille rose armorial porcelain
snuffbox, the coat of arms
probably of Cantrell, with
basket-weave-molded sides and
the interior finely enameled with
a European lady daydreaming in
her boudoir, 2¾" long, sold for
$18,750 (est. $5000/8000).
This English market
armorial dish, circa
1743, with the arms
of Leake Okeover, the
border with cipher
“MLO,” 11
1
/
8
" diameter,
sold for $20,000 (est.
$10,000/15,000) to
Washington, D.C.,
collector Bruce Perkins
in the salesroom.
This rare
en grisaille
European subject dish, 11" diameter, Qianlong
period (1736-95), painted after Francis Barlow’s engraving of
Different Poultry and a Turkey
by Jan Griffier (c. 1655-1718), a Dutch
painter who was active in England, sold for $35,000 (est. $5000/7000)
on the phone, underbid by Michael Cohen in the salesroom. At the
sale of the Mottahedeh collection at Sotheby’s on January 30, 1985, it
brought $7425. The catalog quotes Howard and Ayers in
China for the
West:
“This is one of nine exceptional dishes known of this quality, all
painted with compositions of birds, against a background of a farmyard
or other scenery.” The only other piece recorded with this same scene is a
famille rose snuffbox that sold at Sotheby’s, London, on June 2, 1975.
Hunting bowl, circa 1785, with two large fox-hunting
scenes on the exterior, one with the party in full cry, the
fox just ahead, and the other showing the pack treeing
two exotic long-tailed birds, 20" diameter, sold for
$25,000 (est. $20,000/30,000). Another slightly smaller
punch bowl (not shown), with two large fox-hunting
scenes on the exterior and with an East Indiaman ship
in calm waters on the inside, sold for $20,000 (est.
$10,000/15,000) to Michael Cohen in the salesroom.
Mid-19th-century Chinese school panoramic view of Hong Kong harbor,
oil on canvas, 22¼" x 58¼", sold for $93,750 (est. $30,000/50,000).
“Sample” plate, circa 1795,
with four sample borders,
one with a gilt script “AJ”
monogram, 7½" diameter,
sold for $8125 (est.
$3000/5000).
Massive American market sporting punch
bowl, 1795-1800, with painted sepia
sporting cartouches on the exterior and
a fox vignette inside, 22½" diameter, sold
for $23,750 (est. $10,000/15,000). This bowl
matches a punch bowl from the collection of
H.F. du Pont, now at Winterthur (illustrated
in
The Magazine Antiques
, July 2001, p. 102,
shown in the entrance of his Southampton house).
Both relate closely to a smaller bowl featuring
two equestrian hunting vignettes, published by Jean
Gordon Lee in
Philadelphians and the China Trade
(no.
26), once part of a set in graduated sizes “presented to
Samuel Morris by the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club.”
Samuel Morris (1734-1812), a prominent Philadelphian,
was a founding member and president of the hunt club. This magnificent
punch bowl demonstrates the high quality of the special orders that were
made for leading Americans at this relatively late stage of the China trade.
A pair of Chinese school artworks (one
shown), late 18th/early 19th century,
depicting imperial audiences, ink and
color on paper, 29¼" x 35½", sold for
$22,500 (est. $20,000/30,000).