A CHINESE FAMILLE VERTE ROULEAU VASE

KANGXI 1662-1722

Painted with a continuous battle scene with equestrian warriors from the Peking opera Kong Cheng Ji, with a band of panels on diaper ground to the shoulder and bamboo spray to the neck, 45.5cm.

Provenance: a Hong Kong private collection, from the Stirling Maxwell Collection, Pollok House, Glasgow, Lyon & Turnbull, Glasgow, the Stirling Maxwell Collection, 28th June, 2006, lot 92.

Cf. Kong Cheng Ji, Ruse of the Empty City is based on chapter 95 of the famous 15th century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Badly outnumbered and besieged by the Wei forces, the strategist Zhuge Liang bluffed his enemy, tricking them into thinking that the walled city he was defending was in fact full of troops.