Adam's Fine Asian Art Preview 23 November 2021

48 A PAIR OF MIRROR FAMILLE ROSE PALETTE ‘LADY QIU XIANG’ OR ‘TONG BOHU THREE SMILES MARRIAGE’ ROULEAU VASES CHINA, 20TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY REPUBLIC / MINGUO PERIOD Of rouleau shape, resting on a spread foot, with an everted rim. One adorned with a beautiful lady holding a fan, i.e. the renowned prosti- tute Lady Qiu Xiang, the other one adorned with a young man also holding a fan, i.e. Tong Bohu also known at Tang Yin. Both inscribed with a long-lasting calligraphy describing the subject. Both bearing two identical seals, one reading “ 三希堂製 ”, lit. and “Made of the Sanxi Hall”, the other one reading “ 石渠宫精鉴玺 ”, the Shiqu palace imperial seal. Both inscribed in cobalt blue with an apocryphal four-char- acter Qianlong mark within a double square to the below. H: 19,6 cm €1,000 - 2,000 NOTE: The “Tang Bohu Dian Qiuxiang” ( 唐伯虎點秋香) , lit. “Tang Bohu / Tang Yin orders (or buys) Qiuxiang” ( 三笑姻緣) , also known as the “San Xiao Yinyuan”, lit. “The Three Smiles Marriage”, is a folk legend whose main characters are Qiu Xiang ( 秋香 ), a renowned prostitute from Nanjing whom lived during the Ming Dynasty and was born in Chenghua, and Tang Bohu also known as Tang Yin (1470-1523), a famous painter from Suzhou. It is said that Tang Yin orders Qiuxiang whom he married. This story is currently a well-known subject of Cantonese operas.