- Altmeyer Collection, France 2016
- With Vanderven Oriental Art, 2017 (label)
- Schwarz Collection, United Kingdom 2024
Condition Report Available
€ 9,500
This object can be viewed in our gallery.
An enamel on biscuit porcelain water vessel, naturalistically modelled in the shape of a lotus leaf. The leaf is enamelled in a clear green and has incised veining and a softly undulating edge. The sides curl up, forming a shallow basin. Emerging from the remaining lotus flower, is a large green seedpod, with an oval shaped opening in the top. Two knobbly lotus stems - one green the other yellow- run from the upper rim to the seedpod. The bottom of the basin holds several small aquatic animals such as a brown crab, a yellow water snail and a tiny green frog. A black insect is perched on the rim. The underside has three small moulded feet - slightly raising the leaf - and is covered in a transparent light green glaze. It carries an old unidentified paper label, with inventory nr. 40 and a description in French.
This charming vessel, with its many references to water, could have been used as a brush washer or brush wiper; the seed pod perhaps used as a water dropper. The curled edge of the leaf may also have served as a spout for dripping water onto an inkstone. Many objects intended for a Chinese scholar’s desk, centre around writing or painting using ink and water. Apart from being utilitarian, these objects often came in a myriad of interesting forms and materials. Shapes inspired by nature and animals were particularly popular, as they were a way for the scholar to bring the natural world onto his desk and perhaps reflect a clever emblematic message.
A very similar lotus leaf is in the Laura Collection, Italy. Another was exhibited in the Oriental Ceramics Society centenary exhibition in London in 2016.
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