Adam's Fine Asian Art Preview 23 November 2021

www.adams.ie 33 Preview Asian Art |23 rd November 2021 A RARE CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN CAT NIGHT LIGHT AND STAND CHINA, QING DYNASTY, POSSIBLY 18TH CENTURY Made in two parts, the cat itself and the openworked stand, of black and yellow enamelled porcelain. The lovely cat is depict- ed recumbent while asleep. The light brought by a candle put within the piece would have popped up through the eyes, the ears and the back of the feline as well as through the holes in the stand. Bears two handwritten collector labels to the inner part mentioning “Kangxi” as well as a cat night light preserved in the “British Museum”. Provenance (according to the seller): - Catbecca Columbia City, Indiana, 2016 (with original invoice); - From a long-established US Antique Dealer’s Estate. H: 13,5 cm – L: 18 cm – w: 13,7 cm €2,000 - 4,000 COMMON NOTES: 1. Cat nightlights were made as early as the late Ming period. Two blue and white examples were found in the first Hatch- er cargo (sold Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14 March 1984, lots 279 and 280.) The French Jesuit Père d’Entrecolles was famously struck by the form on his Kangxi period visit to Jingdezhen. 2. Compare with a related cat night light dated to the Kangxi period and illustrated in Later Chinese porcelain: The Ch’ing dynasty, 1644-1912, a book by Soame Jenyns, Faber and Faber Ltd., 1971, pl. no. XXVII. A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN TURQUOISE AND BLACK CAT NIGHT LIGHT CHINA, QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY The recumbent cat is covered all over with a turquoise glazed ground against which is a black zebra pattern. The inner part of the cat would have been set with a candle which light would have come through the eyes, the ears and the back of the feline. H: 10,4 cm – L: 20 cm – w: 14,3 cm Provenance (according to the seller): Bought in 2003 from the closing sale of Charlotte Horstmann & Gerald God- frey Ltd., Hong Kong, China. €1,500 - 3,000 Fig. 1 - View with of lighted cat night