Additional Images

Provenance:

Property from the collection of Chen Zhaogong陳垗拱 (1903-1996), Taipei. Acquired during the 1940’s and thence by decent to the current owner in Toronto.

Chen Zhaogong was the owner and founder of the Xin Xie Ying Inc. (新協營食品公司), a large bakery and candy factory located at 61 Nanjing West Road in Taipei. Specializing in Chinese cookies and sweets, the company employed over three hundred people whose jobs included operating the heavy machinery and hand-packing all the products. In 1937 the Japanese changed the company name to Xin Xie Rong Ltd. (新協榮食品股份有限公司) until its closure in 1957.

Amongst other things, Chen Zhaogong was elected as Baozheng (保正), the district chief of the Jiancheng area in Guanghua Village (建成區光華里) from 1942 until 1971, and the founder of the Taipei Bakery Association in 1949.

Chen Zhaogong had many interests outside of managing the Xin Xie Rong factory. He was an amateur collector of Late Qing Dynasty and Republican Period antiques, with many pieces now dispersed to family members in Taipei, New York, and Toronto.

Note:

With carefully controlled bursts of ink resulting in small concentrated pools of paint, the “heaping and piling” method of decoration, as seen in this present example, purposefully recalls earlier 15th century techniques. Although potters had mastered the art of firing and painting underglaze cobalt blue by the 18th century, this stylistic reference, with its bold brushwork and sporadic bursts of ink, served as both a reminder and tribute to the highly prized and admired works of previous dynasties.

The current example has a subtle difference from typical vases of this design in that the lotus balls across the body are slightly smaller and more sinuous. However hu vases with this design have been recorded and are probably later in the Qianlong reign. For a Qianlong example of a hu vase with smaller lotus balls, see Christie’s New York, September 17, 2008 lot 458. For a Jiaqing example, see Christie’s Hong Kong, October 30, 2001, lot 809.