A NEAR PAIR OF CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE YEN YEN VASES

19TH CENTURY

Each painted with a continuous scene of scholar-officials engaged in various activities in a rocky wooded landscape, the gentlemen admire scrolls, play weiqi, drink tea and converse in the setting, with mountainous riverscapes and lines of calligraphy to the tall flaring necks, each with a four character mark reading nei fu dai zao to the base, 45.4cm and 44.7cm. (2)

Provenance: from the collection of Lady Kate Davson, née Kate Foster (1938-2020). Kate Davson was a prominent dealer in European ceramics. The daughter of Ludovic Foster and Pamela Wilberforce, Kate was brought up near Pulborough in Sussex and educated at Downe House School near Newbury. Kate joined Sotheby's Works of Art Department in 1959. She travelled widely for Sotheby's and set up their Munich office. In 1973, she established the firm of Kate Foster Ltd, with premises in Ryder Street, St. James's. She also founded the French Porcelain Society in 1984. Kate married Christopher Davson (1927-2004) in 1975 and later became Lady Davson in 1998, although she still liked to be known as Kate. She was proud to be the great-great-great grand-daughter of William Wilberforce and was prominent in the bicentenary celebration of Britain's abolition of the Slave Trade in 2007.