A GOOD CHINESE CINNABAR LACQUER QUATRELOBED 'SCHOLARS' VASE

QIANLONG 1736-95

Carved with four rectangular panels containing scholars conversing in gardens, their attendants carry the gentlemen's musical instruments and gather peaches and lingzhi, the rocky setting rich with pine and wutong trees, the scenes surrounded by stylised lotus blooms set amongst scrolling foliage, with large pendant leaves enclosing archaistic scrolls to the flared neck and foot, the lappets reserved on a finely incised diaper ground, together with a wood stand, 41cm. (2)

Provenance: by direction of the executors of the late Sylvia Quance (d.20th September 2020). From the collection of Gordon W Quance LLM (1931-2017).

Cf. Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colours: Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, p.155, no.166 for a very similar vase; see also Roger Keverne, Fine and Rare Chinese Works of Art and Ceramics, Winter Exhibition 2001, pp.98-99, no.128 for another comparable vase.