RARE CIZHOU-STYLE YUHUCHUN BOTTLE VASE
QING DYNASTY, KANGXI MARK
£1,625
Auction: 30 November 2015 at 10:00 GMT
Description
of typical form, glazed in a dark brown glaze on the biscuit painted with two five-clawed dragons flying amongst clouds and flames above fish peeking out of the waves, above them a scroll border, the neck with upright stylised leaves and beneath the rim a geometrical diaper pattern, the base, neck and foot left unglazed, apart from a glazed six character mark of Kangxi in underglaze blue
Dimensions
28.5cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
The Danish linguist Vilhelm Ferdinand Larsen M. A. (1867-1960) and thence by descent
Note:
Vilhelm (or William) Ferdinand Larsen was a well-travelled gifted linguist born in Copenhagen. He emigrated to America in 1891 and gained a position teaching Latin and Greek at a school in Los Angeles. Initially intending to teach at Stamford, Palo Alto, his financing fell through and instead he was employed at Berkeley in the French department. With time he returned to Denmark teaching at schools there, returning once more to California to teach in 1905 together with his wife and four children. Soon after his return, the school he was teaching at was destroyed in the earthquake of 1906. Larsen became acquainted with a group of Chinese scholars who encouraged him to take up a post teaching English at the new Imperial University in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Larsen undertook the somewhat perilous two month journey, during which time he learned Chinese. His wife and children joined him later with great drama, as he was shipwrecked on the way to meeting them, and their youngest daughter nearly drowned in a freak accident on the river. Nevertheless they settled in Chengdu for four years, a time described in fascinating detail in his short memoir. (Available to view. Refer to department.) They lived comfortably and enjoyed exploring the beautiful countryside of Sichuan. Larsen enjoyed the thriving intellectual hub which Chengdu became and notes the rising secret revolutionary society of Kuomintang. He saved many lives by helping to hide forbidden documents under the floorboards of his house. As the rebellions grew worse, the decision was made to flee. The family left hastily in 1910, just before which this vase was reputedly gifted as a farewell gift to Larsen by his friend and colleague Professor Kung. They had a fraught and perilous journey to Shanghai via Chungking and Hankow. From there on to Beijing where after some time whilst the rebellion grew in force and breadth across the country, the family departed China for Denmark on the advice of General Munthe of Boxer Rebellion fame. They took the Trans-Siberian Railway travelling through Russia amidst further unrest. Via Berlin they made their way home to Denmark where he took up teaching at a school in Esbjerg until 1916 when the family yet again moved to America, Larsen first teaching in Chicago and then Florida. In 1952 he retired to Fredriksberg, Denmark and the well-travelled vase was given to Larsen's niece Benedicte Mandrup Meyer upon his death in 1960.