Blue-and-white ceramic figure "Infant", Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty

Blue-and-white underglaze enamelled ceramic.

A figure of an infant seated with his legs stretched out, his hair tied in two buns and his hands raised in front of him, holding objects or flowers. The belly is decorated with a cobalt-blue enamelled oval.

It was produced at the Jingdezhen kilns and was transported, along with other pieces, by the ocean-going junk Tek Sing sunk on 6 February 1822 in the South China Sea. On 12 May 1999, Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck and his crew collected some 350,000 pieces of the ship's cargo in what is described as the largest sunken deposit of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. The following year the German auction house Nagel held a special auction "Tek Sing Trasures" where this piece was auctioned.

Height: 10.50 cm

Provenance:

Spanish private collection. 

Purchased at Nagel, Sttugart, Germany. Auction: "Tek Sing Trasures" November 2000. Lot 147. "Figure of a semi-naked boy seated with his legs stretched...".

This important private collection comes from a successful national and international construction and investment businessman who lived in different parts of Spain and the South of France. This part of the collection, exhibited exclusively for the first time at auction, focuses on Chinese ceramics from the Tang dynasty and is a collection of museum quality pieces. The family's tradition of travel dates back to the success of an ancestor who in the 1930s travelled to Manila, Shanghai, Cairo, Havana, etc., practising the sport of "cesta punta", and in particular, motivated by an interest in discovering different cultures, which led them to build up a large collection. In general, their interest in art is such that their collection includes pieces of both Asian and European origin.

The acquisition of the collection began in the 1990s and was built up during years of study in Madrid and on various trips to Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Spain and Germany; at reputable antique dealers such as "Arch Angel" in Hong Kong and international auctions such as Nagel. Specialists have also collaborated in the selection, study and verification of the pieces, as can be seen in the accompanying documentation: invoices, studies and reports.