CHINE - XIXe siècle - Lot 39

CHINE - XIXe siècle Illustrated description of the porcelains of different dynasties (Li Dai Ming Ci Tu Pu) representing the porcelain collection of XIANG Yuanbian. Two volumes. The first volume contains thirty-five double pages (Part 1 to 6). The second volume forty-one double pages. (Part 7 to 10). Ink and colors on paper. Closed size 32 x 28 cm. Cover and back in wood. Li Dai Ming Ci Tu Pu (Illustrated Description of Porcelains of Different Dynasties), which is believed to have been written at the end of the Ming Dynasty, illustrates with texts more than eighty pieces of various exceptional porcelains of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties collected by the famous collector Xiang Yuanbian (1525-1590) The original book was kept in the family of Prince Yi since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Around 1885, Dr. Stephen Wootton Bushell acquired it and brought it back to London, where it was unfortunately destroyed in a fire in 1887. Dr. Bushell then found the painter Li Chengyuan, who had copied the book while still in China, and bought a copy, which was published in Britain in 1908 and had a great influence both in China and abroad. In 1931, the collectors Guo Baochang and John Calvin Ferguson built on this book, referring to other copies, correcting the drawings and text and adding commentary to publish Noted porcelains of successive dynasties with comments & illustrations by Hsiang Yuan pien, which became such a sensation that it was difficult to find a copy. The book we present is probably a copy made in China before 1885 from the original.