Forthcoming Exhibition

Two Rare Chinese Porcelain Fish Jars of the 14th and 16th Centuries will be presented by Eskenazi at 10 Clifford Street, London W1, from Thursday 7 to Saturday 30 November 2002 as the centrepiece of the autumn exhibition to coincide with Asian Art in London. The exhibition will compare and contrast two large, exceptionally rare porcelain jars of a shape known in Chinese as guan, both decorated with fish swimming amongst aquatic plants.

Giuseppe Eskenazi, widely recognised as one of the world’s leading dealers in oriental works of art, is this year’s chairman of Asian Art in London (7 to 15 November), the fifth annual staging of Asian art events held by dealers, auctioneers, museums and other institutions which draw scholars and collectors to London from around the world.

The earlier jar, which was made during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) in the mid-14th century, was previously in a Far Eastern private collection and is hitherto unpublished and unrecorded. It is painted in rich cobalt blue under a brilliant clear glaze with four exquisitely delineated fish, probably three types of carp and one mandarin fish, in a pond surrounded by swaying water weeds and floating vegetation. The quality of the painting and control of the potting make it truly exceptional and only one other jar in the world of this type, now in the Brooklyn Museum, New York, can be compared with it. It is also extremely rare to find a mid-14th century guan jar of this size so freely and boldly painted without the use of encircling borders above and below the main register.

In China much symbolism attaches to fish in general and carp in particular. Carp, still considered to be one of the most auspicious fish, were kept for pleasure and consumption throughout China and figured extensively in legends and myths. For example, they were admired for their ability to swim upstream and the legend of the carp leaping up the falls of the Yellow River and transforming itself into a dragon became the symbol of success in civil service examinations, so important in traditional China.

The common carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio) or li (a homophone in Chinese for the Confucian virtue of moral rectitude which can also mean ‘advantage’ or ‘wealth’) may well be the fish shown on this jar with barbels and longer frilly dorsal fin. The most easily identifiable fish, with its spiky dorsal fin and elongated lower jaw, is the mandarin fish or Chinese perch (Siniperca).

The later and larger jar on view dates from the Jiajing reign (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty and is one of a small group of such pieces made at that time that has iconic status. Most of the known examples are in museums, and indeed this example formerly belonged to two Japanese museums: the Hakutsuru Museum in Kobe and the Manno Museum in Osaka.




	ESKENAZI PRESENTS TWO EXCEPTIONALLY RARE PORCELAIN FISH JARS Two Rare Chinese Porcelain Fish Jars of the 14th and 16th Centuries will be presented by Eskenazi at 10 Clifford Street, London W1, from Thursday 7 to Saturday 30 November 2002 as the centrepiece of the autumn exhibition to coincide with Asian Art in London. The exhibition will compare and contrast two large, exceptionally rare porcelain jars of a shape known in Chinese as guan, both decorated with fish swimming amongst aquatic plants. Giuseppe Eskenazi, widely recognised as one of the world’s leading dealers in oriental works of art, is this year’s chairman of Asian Art in London (7 to 15 November), the fifth annual staging of Asian art events held by dealers, auctioneers, museums and other institutions which draw scholars and collectors to London from around the world. The earlier jar, which was made during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) in the mid-14th century, was previously in a Far Eastern private collection and is hitherto unpublished and unrecorded. It is painted in rich cobalt blue under a brilliant clear glaze with four exquisitely delineated fish, probably three types of carp and one mandarin fish, in a pond surrounded by swaying water weeds and floating vegetation. The quality of the painting and control of the potting make it truly exceptional and only one other jar in the world of this type, now in the Brooklyn Museum, New York, can be compared with it. It is also extremely rare to find a mid-14th century guan jar of this size so freely and boldly painted without the use of encircling borders above and below the main register. In China much symbolism attaches to fish in general and carp in particular. Carp, still considered to be one of the most auspicious fish, were kept for pleasure and consumption throughout China and figured extensively in legends and myths. For example, they were admired for their ability to swim upstream and the legend of the carp leaping up the falls of the Yellow River and transforming itself into a dragon became the symbol of success in civil service examinations, so important in traditional China. The common carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio) or li (a homophone in Chinese for the Confucian virtue of moral rectitude which can also mean ‘advantage’ or ‘wealth’) may well be the fish shown on this jar with barbels and longer frilly dorsal fin. The most easily identifiable fish, with its spiky dorsal fin and elongated lower jaw, is the mandarin fish or Chinese perch (Siniperca). The later and larger jar on view dates from the Jiajing reign (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty and is one of a small group of such pieces made at that time that has iconic status. Most of the known examples are in museums, and indeed this example formerly belonged to two Japanese museums: the Hakutsuru Museum in Kobe and the Manno Museum in Osaka.