A RARE PORCELAIN QIANJIANG VASE SIGNED BY XU PINGENG, China, dated 1889.

Beautifully shaped rising from a high foot, with a globular body, long neck and flared rim, it is marvelously painted with Qianjiang enamels depicting the hundred antiquities, on the back it bears inscriptions including the signature of the artist Xu Pinheng (許 品衡) and the cyclic date ji chou (己丑) corresponding to 1889; On the neck it has two beautiful elephant-head handles; in the centre of the base is the impressed apocryphal seal mark of Emperor Tongzhi in red.

Provenance: -Private collection, Italy

Catalogue notes: Xu Pinheng was an artist registered in the Imperial Kilns during the reign of Guangxu, considered a Master of the Qianjiang style on porcelain. His painting speciality in the Qianjiang style was undoubtedly antiquities.

The present vase is an extraordinary example of his painting style, made even more incisive by its powerful shape and large size.

See in particular the vase of the same year (1889), with a similar stylistic rendering, illustrated in the book 'Qianjiang Ware in the Late Qing Period', editor in chief Xu Jinfan and Cheng Bing, Shanghai 2011, pp. 204-205 no. 81. See in the same book also p. 203 no. 80, p. 206-208 no. 82, 83 and 84 and p. 210 no. 86.