{"id":11314,"date":"2025-05-06T07:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/news-releases\/the-only-known-kangxi-walrus-vase-to-go-under-the-hammer-at-roseberys-london\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T07:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:03:01","slug":"the-only-known-kangxi-walrus-vase-to-go-under-the-hammer-at-roseberys-london","status":"publish","type":"news-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/news-releases\/the-only-known-kangxi-walrus-vase-to-go-under-the-hammer-at-roseberys-london\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Known Kangxi \u2018Walrus\u2019 Vase to Go Under the Hammer at Roseberys London"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0An extraordinary example of cross-cultural artistic exchange from the Kangxi reign \u2014 featuring the only known depiction of walruses in Qing porcelain \u2014 will be offered at auction this May.<\/em>\u00a0<\/div>\n
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LONDON, UK. May 6th, 2025<\/strong> \u2014 Roseberys London is set to auction an unparalleled masterpiece of Qing dynasty porcelain in its upcoming Asian Art sale on Tuesday, 13th May at 10am \u2014 a unique blue and white soft-paste \u2018walrus\u2019 vase<\/a> from the Kangxi period (1662\u20131722).
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Standing at 23cm tall and exquisitely painted in cobalt blue, this elegantly potted vessel features an extraordinary subject never before seen on Chinese ceramics: a pair of walruses resting above a roiling sea.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The vase is not only visually arresting, with its fine craquelure and creamy-white glaze, but also historically significant, embodying a pivotal moment of East-West cultural exchange during the late 17th century. Created at a time when Jesuit missionaries were embedded in the Qing court, it reflects the Kangxi Emperor\u2019s fascination with the natural world and foreign knowledge.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis is truly a once-in-a-generation discovery,\u201d said Bill Forrest, Head of the Asian Art department at Roseberys. \u201cThere is no other recorded example of walruses on Chinese porcelain, making this vase an utterly unique window into the cultural and scientific dialogues that defined the Kangxi era.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Kangxi\u2019s Curiosity and the Jesuit Influence\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n
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During his reign, the Kangxi Emperor welcomed Jesuit missionaries like Ferdinand Verbiest, who brought Western knowledge in astronomy, cartography, and natural history. Through their books and illustrations, exotic animals including Arctic marine life found their way into the Chinese imagination and eventually into court art.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The walruses depicted on this vase are almost certainly derived from such sources, including Western natural history texts and hybrid publications like the Illustrated Records of Sea Monsters (\u6d77\u602a\u56fe\u8bb0). These books merged Western engraving techniques with Chinese brushwork to depict animals both real and mythological, expanding the visual language of Chinese artists.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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A Symbol of Global Curiosity\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n
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This singular vase does more than showcase a rare subject \u2014 it encapsulates the intellectual and artistic openness of the Kangxi court, where European and Chinese traditions merged in fascinating ways. The walruses are not merely decorative; they are symbolic of a dynasty in dialogue with the world.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Whether inspired by Jesuit illustrations, firsthand encounters like Kangxi\u2019s famed inspection of a live seal presented by Korean envoys, or the broader trend of collecting and cataloguing the exotic, this vase is a material embodiment of an empire exploring its place in a global context.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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For collectors, historians, and museums alike, this is an unmissable opportunity to acquire a singular work of Kangxi porcelain \u2014 the only known \u2018walrus\u2019 vase from imperial China.<\/p>\n

Viewing is open now by appointment at Roseberys London.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11315,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"news-rooms":[7430],"press-tags":[],"press-categories":[2614],"class_list":["post-11314","news-releases","type-news-releases","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-rooms-itg","press-categories-arts-entertainment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-releases\/11314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-rooms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-rooms?post=11314"},{"taxonomy":"press-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-tags?post=11314"},{"taxonomy":"press-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prfire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-categories?post=11314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}