Shallow bowls of round form, painted in shades of underglaze blue with scenes of a small party consisting of a lady and two male figures pick-nicking on boats in the shade of a willow tree growing at the edge of the water, in the background high mountains and flocks of birds flying high in the sky, the exterior sides with small watery landscapes, the glazed bases with a six-character mark of Kangxi and of the period, inside double circular lines, attached also several collection stickers from the Gow Collection and one with a small armorial and initials 'S E K' for Sydney Ernest Kennedy (1855-1933).
Provenance
Leonard Gow Collection.
Leonard Gow (1859-1936) was born in Glasgow, the son of a shipping magnate also called Leonard, who established the Glen Line to trade between London, Singapore, China and Japan. The younger Leonard attended Glasgow University in 1884 to spend a year studying Moral Philosophy. He became senior partner in the shipping company Gow, Harrison & Co, director of the Burmah Oil Co and chairman of several other companies. A noted philanthropist, he founded the Leonard Gow Lectureship on Medical Diseases of Infancy and Childhood in 1919. He was given an honorary degree in 1934.
Gow was one of the city's greatest art collectors, specialising in pictures, etchings and Chinese porcelain. In 1965 the trustees of his estate presented a collection of prints by the Glasgow artist Muirhead Bone to the Hunterian Art Gallery.
Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek write in Provenance: Collectors, Dealers and Scholars in the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, published by Roy Davids, 2011, about Leonard Gow and his collection of Chinese ceramics and we quote: "Gow built one of the finest collections of Qing ceramics in the early years of the twentieth century, its sumptuous catalogue being published by R.L. Hobson in 1931, limited to 300 copies, selling then at £26.5s and now at £1500 or more. Hobson had earlier produced a series of ten illustrated articles on Gow's collection for the Burlington Magazine, 1920-1924. Hobson described the collection as one that 'for quality may claim to be the equal of any of its kind that has ever been formed in Europe'. Gow was one of the first collectors to produce his own catalogue. The collection included a few pieces of Ming porcelain but the great majority were Qing, and mainly of the Kangxi period…Gow confidently declared: 'there is nothing in ceramic art, either in Europe or the East, at any epoch, comparable with the superb products of the Chinese kilns, and especially those of the K'ang Hsi period, of which the Collection almost entirely consists.' Gow lent 56 items to the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1935-1936; part of his collection was exhibited Glasgow Art Gallery; and much of it was sold at Sotheby's on 13 May 1943, 125 lots, with some provenances given: Richard Bennett, Kennedy, Sir William Bennett, Heseltine, J. E. Taylor and Beurdeley."
Literature
A very similar example with the same scene, Kangxi period but with a Chenghua mark, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, from the Salting Bequest, museum number C.709-1910.
Sydney Ernest Kennedy (1855-1933), collected European works of art as well as Chinese porcelain. He was a senior partner in the family firm of Sydney Kennedy & Co., one of the largest dealers in the foreign railway market and, at his death, was a senior trustee of the London Stock Exchange, having been elected a trustee in 1900. He lived at 146 Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park (noted in the Christie's 1929 Cumberbatch catalogue as a bidder) and at his death at Upper Brooke Street.
Kennedy sold most of his collection when he disposed of his town house in 1916. The Chinese porcelains were sold over two days, 21-22 June, 1916 and the Catalogue was described as being 'innovative', including illustrations, some in colour, for the first time. Although consisting largely of late Ming and Kangxi period wares, the collection was considered significant at the time, some having been acquired form earlier notable collectors, such as Trapnell, Stuart, Grandidier, Huth and Revelstoke. Kennedy's label is recognised by a dolphin and SEK monogram on paper.
