A PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE AND COPPER-RED MOULDED VASES
Kangxi
Each of stepped double-gourd form, the lower larger section with moulded lappets decorated with elegant ladies in blue and parrots in copper-red on a perch, amidst jardinières and flowers, all beneath a band of pine branches, the upper sections with bands of floral sprays.
14.7cm (5 3/4in) high. (2).
Footnotes:
清康熙 青花釉裏紅瓶 一對

Provenance: A.C. Beeling & Zn., Hofleverancier, Leeuwarden (label).

An important European private collection.

The theme of parrots and ladies is an old motif perhaps originating from the famous Song dynasty courtesan Zhou Shao who compared herself to a caged parrot in a poem. The theme is reiterated in a play about courtesans by Chen Yujiao (1544-1611) titled 'Parrot Island' (Ying wu zhou), and again by the famous courtesan Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604), in a poem she wrote, titled 'The Parrot': 'All day long I watch the parrot, Pass its life in a golden cage.' See, Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism, Stanford, 1999, p. 231.
Lot to be sold without reserve.

One with minor shallow chip to footrim.
The other with a firing flaw to the neck interior.