LITTLETON & HENNESSY ASIAN ART
ABOUT
Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art is an art advisory group specialising in Asian works of art. We hold several exhibitions a year in our London gallery, in the heart of St. James’s. We are also regular exhibitors at various art fairs in the world, including the prestigious European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in New York and Fine Art Asia Hong Kong. We have established numerous world records in the fields of Chinese porcelains, bronzes and paintings.
INFORMATION
Later Chinese Bronzes
OPENING HOURS
29th October – 6th November
Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00
Sat 31st Oct 12.00-18.00
Sun 1st Nov 12.00-20.00
ADDRESS
1 Princes Place
Duke Street, St James’s
London
SW1Y 6DE
CONTACT
Mark Slaats
Phone +44 (0)20 7930 0888
Email mark@littletonandhennessy.com
Website www.littletonandhennessy.com
SPECIALITY
IMAGE GALLERY
The censer has a deep rounded bowl rising from three conical legs to a flat rim and two upright bracket handles. It is decorated with a band of taotie masks with central flanges; followed by a band of archaistic dragons and downward blades. The legs are cast with vertical flanges above two raised bands and cold worked with taotie masks. The bronze has a deep dark brown patina. The censer is fitted with an elaborate wood stand carved with a dragon emerging from clouds, and a cover with further clouds and bats.
Dimensions: the censer 30 cm. diam.; 41.5 cm. high
Provenance:
- A private Asian Collection
The dating of the current censer is consistent with the thermoluminescence test, with two samples taken from the core material inside the legs, Certificate Number C110j84.
Dimensions: 28cm high
Provenance:
- A private English collection
Dimensions: each 80cm high x 47cm wide
Provenance:
- A private Hong Kong collection
Published: ‘The Luxury of Chinese Lacquer’, Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art (March 2010)
The panels are of rectangular shape, each finely inlaid in mother-of-pearl and gold. Each are decorated variously with panels containing butterflies, birders, deer or poetic inscriptions.
Compare a set of five panels in the ‘Hebei Provincial Cultural Bureau’ also by Jiang Qianli. The use of gold and silver inlays alongside mother-of-peark in the Hebei panels is reminiscent of those on the current panels, as well as the style of inlay work. Furthermore, one of the current panels bears the name if Duo Lun (year unknown), an official of the Kangxi reign. His daughter married one of Kangxi’s grandsons, Prince Yinzhi, and he went on to become the Right Vice Minister of The Board of Rites in 1756.
Dimensions: 13cm diameter
Provenance:
- From the Collection of Enid & Brodie Lodge
Dimensions: 9.5cm diameter
Provenance:
- Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2011, ‘Harmony of Form, Serenity of Color:
A Private Collection of 'Song' Ceramics’, lot 522
- Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th October 1991, lot 5.
Dimensions: 19.5cm high
Provenance:
- A private English collection
The poem and translation:
蕭聲斷却無踪跡
耳邊相撤在東西
– 三畏
The sound of Xiao stops, leaving no trace.
Dissipates, in the air.
– San Wei
Xiao is a type of Chinese flute, there is no actual English translation of this music instrument. “San Wei ” (三畏) , the last two Chinese characters on the left hand side of the poem refer to a Hall Name, one of the imperial clans of Yongzheng. There were stationed in Jiangning (now Nanjing, Anhui and Shanghai), with the family name of ‘Lu’（陆). “San Wei”(三畏) means “Three Fear” in English. Lu Wen 陆韫 – the first generation of Three Fear Hall defined the virtues of the entire family, namely: fear the dignity of heaven, fear the anger of earth, fear the truth of heart. Lu Wen 陆韫 was the first ranking official ( the picture of him shows he wears a ruby finial).
Compare a ‘prunus’ vase with a similar, fluid painting style and four-character mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing (no. 5250 – 20464). Link: Palace Museum Beijing
Dimensions: 35.3cm high
Provenance:
- A private Irish collection
- Christie’s Hong Kong ‘Imperial Sale; Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art’, 29 May 2013 (lot 2243)
- Christie's New York, 22 March 2012, lot 1971
- Christie's London, 13 May 2008, lot 181
The well-potted globular body is carved with a wide band of composite foliate scroll above a band of upright petals. The cover is potted with undulating scalloped edges below a similar foliate scroll pattern, and is surmounted by a stem finial.
The censer has a deep rounded bowl rising from three conical legs to a flat rim and two upright bracket handles. It is decorated with a band of taotie masks with central flanges; followed by a band of archaistic dragons and downward blades. The legs are cast with vertical flanges above two raised bands and cold worked with taotie masks. The bronze has a deep dark brown patina. The censer is fitted with an elaborate wood stand carved with a dragon emerging from clouds, and a cover with further clouds and bats.
Dimensions: the censer 30 cm. diam.; 41.5 cm. high
Provenance:
- A private Asian Collection
The dating of the current censer is consistent with the thermoluminescence test, with two samples taken from the core material inside the legs, Certificate Number C110j84.
Dimensions: 28cm high
Provenance:
- A private English collection
Dimensions: each 80cm high x 47cm wide
Provenance:
- A private Hong Kong collection
Published: ‘The Luxury of Chinese Lacquer’, Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art (March 2010)
The panels are of rectangular shape, each finely inlaid in mother-of-pearl and gold. Each are decorated variously with panels containing butterflies, birders, deer or poetic inscriptions.
Compare a set of five panels in the ‘Hebei Provincial Cultural Bureau’ also by Jiang Qianli. The use of gold and silver inlays alongside mother-of-peark in the Hebei panels is reminiscent of those on the current panels, as well as the style of inlay work. Furthermore, one of the current panels bears the name if Duo Lun (year unknown), an official of the Kangxi reign. His daughter married one of Kangxi’s grandsons, Prince Yinzhi, and he went on to become the Right Vice Minister of The Board of Rites in 1756.
Dimensions: 13cm diameter
Provenance:
- From the Collection of Enid & Brodie Lodge
Dimensions: 9.5cm diameter
Provenance:
- Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2011, ‘Harmony of Form, Serenity of Color:
A Private Collection of 'Song' Ceramics’, lot 522
- Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th October 1991, lot 5.
Dimensions: 19.5cm high
Provenance:
- A private English collection
The poem and translation:
蕭聲斷却無踪跡
耳邊相撤在東西
– 三畏
The sound of Xiao stops, leaving no trace.
Dissipates, in the air.
– San Wei
Xiao is a type of Chinese flute, there is no actual English translation of this music instrument. “San Wei ” (三畏) , the last two Chinese characters on the left hand side of the poem refer to a Hall Name, one of the imperial clans of Yongzheng. There were stationed in Jiangning (now Nanjing, Anhui and Shanghai), with the family name of ‘Lu’（陆). “San Wei”(三畏) means “Three Fear” in English. Lu Wen 陆韫 – the first generation of Three Fear Hall defined the virtues of the entire family, namely: fear the dignity of heaven, fear the anger of earth, fear the truth of heart. Lu Wen 陆韫 was the first ranking official ( the picture of him shows he wears a ruby finial).
Compare a ‘prunus’ vase with a similar, fluid painting style and four-character mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing (no. 5250 – 20464). Link: Palace Museum Beijing
Dimensions: 35.3cm high
Provenance:
- A private Irish collection
- Christie’s Hong Kong ‘Imperial Sale; Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art’, 29 May 2013 (lot 2243)
- Christie's New York, 22 March 2012, lot 1971
- Christie's London, 13 May 2008, lot 181
The well-potted globular body is carved with a wide band of composite foliate scroll above a band of upright petals. The cover is potted with undulating scalloped edges below a similar foliate scroll pattern, and is surmounted by a stem finial.
