Asian Works of Art

Of tapering square section with waisted neck and flared lip, two opposing sides with extensive river landscapes, one with three figures on a cliff, a bridge and pagoda in the distance, and a fisherman below; the other side with a boating party passing below a precipitous cliff and a pine with trailing vines, a flying crane and the full moon between two constellations in the distance; the two remaining sides inscribed with the Former and Latter Odes on the Red Cliff by Su Shi (1037-1101); underside with six-character Kangxi mark in a recessed square.
Note:
Su Shi's "Red Cliff" poems are classics of Chinese literature, and were particularly popular in the decoration of Kangxi period blue and white porcelains. The first (Former) poem describes his moonlit journey with friends by boat in the seventh month of 1082 to the Red Cliff, near Hangzhou, believed to have been the site of a famous third-century battle. Their discussion ranges from the brevity of life to the rise and fall of the famous and the cyclical nature of change. The second (Latter) Ode describes Su Shi returning to the cliff with friends on a frosty moonlit night in the tenth month of the same year. On their return from the cliff by boat, he recounts the flight of a crane, and a later dream where he speaks with an immortal who was the crane transformed.

Compare a similar vase illustrated and discussed in Julia B. Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, Landscapes, Scholars' Motifs and Narratives, Hong Kong, 1995, pp 84-85, no. 26.

For other examples of this form and type of decoration, see the slightly larger vase from the Butler Family Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, November 29, 2022, lot 2968. See also another vase from the Butler Family Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, November 30, 2023, lot 3040, with an apocryphal Jiajing mark to the underside. For a closely comparable Kangxi mark and period vase with the same seal to the calligraphic sides, see the example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, May 12-20, 2025, lot 3383.

蘇軾的《赤壁赋》是中國文學史上的經典名篇，在康熙時期的青花瓷裝飾中尤為盛行。前〈赤壁賦〉描繪了他於元豐五年七月與友人月夜泛舟、前往位於杭州附近相傳為三世紀著名古戰場的赤壁。賦中議論橫槊，從人生須臾談到千古風流人物的興衰成敗，以及天地萬物變與不變的哲理。後〈赤壁賦〉則記述同年十月，他在霜露既降的月夜重遊赤壁。賦中描寫歸舟登岸時見孤鶴橫江掠過，以及其後夢中與化身為道士的鶴仙人問答的奇幻情節。
可參考一件相類瓷瓶，載於朱莉亞‧柯蒂斯，《Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, Landscapes, Scholars‘ Motifs and Narratives》，香港，1995年，頁84-85，編號26 。
同類器形與紋飾之例，另見一件巴特勒家族藏略大之瓷瓶，售於香港佳士得，2022年11月29日，拍品編號2968。再比對一件亦為巴特勒家族舊藏，售於香港佳士得，2023年11月30日，拍品編號3040，其底署明代嘉靖朝寄托款 。
與本品書法面所鈐印章可資比較的康熙本朝款瓷瓶，見一件售於香港蘇富比，2025年5月12至20日，拍品編號3383。