A rare pair of famille verte 'Water Margin' dishes


Wenxin Zhai mark, KangxiEach with shallow rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to an everted mouthrim, the interior finely enamelled with three characters from shuihu zhuan (Water Margin) with a name suspending from their belts, depicting Chai Jin wearing a peony in his hat, Li Ying holding a halberd whilst raising a hand to pacify Lei Heng who is also holding a halberd and a sword suspended from his waist, another depicting Wu Yong holding a feather fan standing behind Li Kui, in a threatening stance confronting Lu Junyi holding a spear, the base with Wenxin Zhai mark within a double circle. Each 20.5cm (8 1/14in) diam. (2).
|清康熙 五彩水滸人物故事圖盤一對青花「問心齋」楷書款The three-character mark reads Wenxin Zhai or Studio of Self-Examination, is likely to be the studio name of the literati Sun Chung 孫𡊿 (1617-1702), alias Chongzhi 翀之, a native of Gui'an, Zhejiang province.Compare with a closely related famille verte dish, Kangxi period, also with a Wenxin Zhai mark, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, depicting different characters from the same novel with a similar palette, illustrated by M.Wilson, Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, London, 1998, pp.88-89, where the author further stated if similar dishes were indeed commissioned by Sun Chung, the date of manufacture of such dishes would have been no later than 1702, a time when the overglaze blue enamel had just been introduced as a replacement for underglaze cobalt.Compare also with another famille verte dish in the Shanghai Museum, similar to the one depicting Wu Yong in this lot but without a mark, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl.132. See also a related dish enamelled with three characters from the Water Margin, but bearing a Kangxi reign mark and period, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by S.G.Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, 1975, p.232, no.226.翻唇，折腰，圈足工整，碟心繪五彩水滸人物圖，其中一件繪盧俊義、李逵和吳用，另一件繪雷橫、柴進和李應，描繪精細傳神，人物個性之間張力十足，用彩豐富，金彩煥然，藍彩青幽，黃綠各彩渲染得宜，繁而不俗，碟底雙圈青花楷書款，文曰「問心齋」。問心齋或為浙江文士孫𡊿(1617-1702)之堂號，孫𡊿字翀之，湖州人，餘皆不詳，見江慶柏著，《清代人物生卒年表》，北京，2005年，編號6480。如孫𡊿即問心齋主人，那麼問心齋五彩盤則製作於1702年之前，彼時釉上藍彩剛進入中國不久。帶此款的瓷器，僅見於五彩水滸人物故事圖盤。目前傳世有數例可參考，皆為康熙年間物：一為英國維多利亞及艾伯特博物館藏一件，人物不同，而風格相似，見劉明倩著，《英國大維德美術館暨維多利亞博物館藏堂名款瓷器》，倫敦，1998年，頁89；一為上海博物館藏，吳用形象和本件頗似，見《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄》，香港，1998年，圖版132；紐約大都會博物館藏一件，帶「大清康熙年製」款，見S.G.Valenstein著，《A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics》，1975年，頁232，編號226。