CHINA, QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Falconry has long enjoyed imperial patronage in China where hawks were prized for their strength, intelligence, and hunting skills. In China in the 13th century, Marco Polo noted that Kublai Khan had a great passion for the sport employing 10,000 falconers. Falconry was practiced widely across Central and East Asia, India, Pakistan, the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf and brought back to Europe by returning merchants, adventurers and crusaders during the Middle Ages. There are many cultural references to hawks and falcons in Chinese literature, poems and paintings.
A related pair of hawks is published in The International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Burlington House, London, no. 1838 and again in China Without Dragons, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 2016, fig. 31, p. 66. Christie's New York sold a pair of porcelain hawks of similar size on 23 January 2008, lot 317 and another pair in the same rooms, 4-19 April 2023, lot 407; Christie's Paris sold a single hawk on 8 December 2021, lot 283.
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. P123h79 is consistent with the dating of this lot.