Lot 245
LARGE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' BRUSH WASHER
YONGZHENG MARK, 19TH-20TH CENTURY
£945
Auction: 17 May 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
十九至二十世紀 雍正款 青花雙龍搶珠大筆洗
of cylindrical form, the straight side painted two five-clawed dragons chasing for a flaming pearl, the base inscribed with a six-character apocryphal Yongzheng mark in underglaze blue
Dimensions
25.6cm diameter
Provenance
Collection of Sir Alan Campbell, GCMG, thence by descent to his daughter
The diplomat Alan Campbell (later Sir Alan Campbell, 1919-2007) was the youngest son of Hugh Campbell, (1873-1943) silk merchant and Director of Ilbert & Co, Shanghai. In 1905 Hugh Campbell married Ethel Warren (1881-1951) daughter of HM Consul-General in Shanghai, Sir Pelham Warren (1845-1923). Alan Campbell, who inherited an interest in Chinese porcelain from his parents, probably acquired this dish in Beijing in 1956-57 during his time as Head of Chancery at the British Legation. His neighbour and colleague in the Legation was John Addis (later Sir John Addis KCMG, 1914-83, British Ambassador to China 1972-4), a collector and authority on Ming porcelain, who made important donations of ceramics and textiles to the British Museum and the V&A Museum. Campbell’s memoir Colleagues and Friends, published in 1988, mentions shopping for antiquities in Wig Street and getting ‘sound advice’ from Addis.
