A FIVE-PIECE BLUE AND WHITE GARNITURE
Kangxi
Comprising: three baluster vases and covers and two inverted baluster vases with flaring necks, all moulded, decorated with panels depicting landscape scenes and flower bouquets against a cracked ice ground, the covers and flaring necks with panels of boys in fenced gardens. 29cm (11 3/8in) high. (8).
Footnotes:
清康熙 青花瓶及蓋瓶 五件

Provenance:
Collection of Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904) prior to 1878 (label)
Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, Formed with Great Taste and Judgement by Sir Henry Thompson, 1-2 June 1880, lots 315 and 316.
Collection of Murray Marks (1840-1918), acquired from the above for 22 pounds 12 shillings and 5 pounds 10 shillings respectively.
Kirtlington Park after 1922

Published:
Thompson and Whistler, A Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain Forming the Collection of Sir Henry Thompson, London, 1878, p. 44, cat. no. 228.

Sir Henry Thompson 1st Baronet, FRCS (1820-1904) was a noted surgeon whose patients included Napoleon III of France. He also turned his hand to astronomy, writing and painting. His collection of Chinese porcelain was illustrated by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), one of the most prominent artists of the Aesthetic Movement. Murray Marks (1840-1918) who acquired the set for a prodigious sum was a major dealer in Chinese porcelain selling works to Rossetti, Whistler, Frederick Leyland, Louis Huth and Sir Henry Thompson who together developed the fashion for Chinese Kangxi blue and white porcelain through depictions in their paintings. Documented Kangxi pieces from this period rarely appear on the market.

Gu vase 1: firing pits to the mouth interior. 0.4cm rim chip with 2cm hairline. 1cm chip mostly to the rim interior. Some frits and small glaze chip at the foot.

Gu vase 2: firing pits to the mouth interior. 5cm wide rim section restored with 1cm chip. 0.3cm rim chip and frits. Further restoration residue to the mouth interior.

Vase 1: the cover with a firing crack running around half of the underside. 3.5cm crack to the surface. The vase with 3cm rim hairline. Frits and glaze chips at the foot.

Vase 2: frits and glaze chips at the foot and to the body ribs. 0.3cm surface chip. The cover with burst firing bubbles, 1.2cm surface rim chip, firing crack at the base of the finial, respraying to the underside.

Vase 3: two rim chips, both approx. 1cm. Frits and pits at the foot. The cover finial restored. One of the side petal lobes of the cover has the rim restored, running half way up. Further respraying to the underside of the cover.