This Kangxi (1662-1722) period vase with a sang de boeuf glaze comes for sale from a direct descendant of Countess Eleanor Golferelli and will feature in our November Asian Art Auction
This Kangxi (1662-1722) period vase with a sang de boeuf glaze comes for sale from a direct descendant of Countess Eleanor Golferelli (1882-1988).
The child actress turned music hall star, who danced for Queen Victoria in the Drury Lane Theatre in 1888, enjoyed a remarkably rich and long life. In the early 1900s, as wife to the pioneering brain surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Dr Alfred Hull and mother of twins, she travelled extensively around India, South East Asia and the Far East.
Later in life - after discovering her second husband, an Italian aristocrat Count Golferelli, was a bigamist she fled back to England. Living in St John's Wood she became an international buyer for the John Lewis partnership where she worked until she was 90 years old.
Eleanor gave the 39cm high vase, with its distinctive crackle-suffused glaze of deep strawberry colour, to her grandson, Anthony Gaisford Hull as a wedding present in 1966. He kept it in his home in Harrow until he passed it to his son when he married in 2003. It carries an estimate of £2,000-2,500 at Sworders’ sale of Asian Art on November 8.
The vase dates from the first flowering of the famous sang de boeuf (ox blood) glaze that was developed in the Jingdezhen porcelain kilns during the later years of the Kangxi period - around 1705-10. It was not until the late 19th century that Western potters managed to imitate the glaze that, using copper oxide as a colouring agent, is technically very difficult to achieve and control.
If you would like to know more about the upcoming Asian Art Auction or this vase, please contact
Yexue Li
We are proud to announce our collaboration with Britten Pears Arts, a pioneering music, arts, and heritage charity based on the Suffolk Coast. Custodians of two iconic and historic sites – Snape Maltings and The Red House – Britten Pears Arts has been a cultural cornerstone since 1948.
19 June 2025
An impressive single-owner collection of Eric Ravilious ceramics will star as one of the standout sections in our upcoming 8 July Design sale.
19 June 2025
To mark the 210th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, we are proud to present an extraordinary and highly personal relic from the battlefield - a silver-mounted inkwell made from the ear of Bos, the horse ridden by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry D’Oyly, who served with distinction in the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards. This unique memento, preserved by the D’Oyly family for over two centuries, has now been consigned to the Homes & Interiors sale at Sworders.
18 June 2025