A large ‘famille rose’ ‘landscape’ dish, Yongzheng mark, sold for £1,049,250 million / $1.2 million / €1.7 million. Photo: Sotheby's

LONDON.- Sotheby’s biannual sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art brought a total of £12.3 million /$19.8 million / €14.4 million, within estimate. Headlining the sale was a large ‘famille rose’ ‘landscape’ dish, Yongzheng mark. The elaborately enamelled dish sold after a dramatic four-way telephone bidding battle, for £1,049,250 / $1.2 million/ €1.7 million. Decorated in blue, green, turquoise and sepia enamels, the dish’s interior depicts a landscape with cliffs and a craggy mountain range shaded by pine trees.

Stephen Loakes Sotheby’s London’s Acting Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art said: “We have experienced an extraordinary level of interest from our clients worldwide and with our auction coinciding with Asian Art week in London, bidding today from our packed saleroom and over the telephones was extremely competitive. In particular, we were delighted with the demand for works from Sir Peter Moore’s collection from Parbold Hall. We are witnessing a real appetite for exceptional pieces priced appropriately and as the market for fine Chinese ceramics and works of art continues to mature, buyers are becoming increasingly selective.”

A large ‘famille rose’ ‘landscape’ dish, Yongzheng mark. Photo: Sotheby's

of ogee form, rising from a wedge-shaped foot, elaborately enamelled in blue, green, turquoise and sepia enamels with touches of pink, the interior with buildings by a craggy cliff among sterculia and pine trees leading on the left to a bridge with a scholar and an acolyte over a stream opening out to a river with two boats, the far bank with buildings shaded by trees at the foot of a craggy mountain range, the exterior with iron-red bats hovering above turbulent breaking waves, inscribed with a six-character Yongzheng mark in a double-circle; 54cm., 21 1/4 in. Estimate 20,000-30,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 1,049,250 GBP

PROVENANCE: Collection of S.D. Winkworth.

Christie's London, 11th June 1990, lot 213.

Christie's London, 29th October 1990, lot 169.

EXHIBITED: International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-36, cat. no. 2098 (mis-numbered 2749 on label).

Other highlights from today’s sale included: 

A superb gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel tiger water pot of Qianlong mark and period from the collection of Sir Peter Moores at Parbold Hall in Lancashire. Photo: Sotheby's

A battle between seven bidders on the telephone and in the saleroom drove the final price to £825,250 / $1.3 million / €966,530, nearly three times its high estimate of £200,000-£300,000

he animal crouching with tail curled alongside its rear haunches, the head slightly raised and modelled with a short snout and menacing teeth, its clawed feet modelled with flame-like projections, its body brightly enamelled in ochre with black stripes and dotted markings, fitted at the back with a cloud-fringed compartment with chiselled cover, the white belly with a gilt-bronze rectangle incised with a four-character Qianlong mark 
Quantity: 2  21cm., 8 1/4 in. Estimate 200,000-300,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 825,250 GBP

PROVENANCE: Collection of General Charles George Gordon.

Christie's London, 5th December 1994, lot 259.

NOTE: Cloisonné enamel wares of the Qianlong period are renowned for their high quality with the present waterpot, in the form of a crouching tiger, a superb example. Only two other closely related vessels appear to be recorded, both of slightly smaller dimensions, one sold in these rooms, 22nd June 1965, lot 277, and the other sold at Christie's London, 11th December 1978, lot 14. In contrast to earlier, Kangxi and Yongzheng period cloisonné wares, pieces made for the Qianlong emperor and his court frequently bear the emperor's four-character reign mark, as seen on this waterpot.

The form of this vessel is inspired by archaic bronze vessels of the Six Dynasties period, a tumultuous yet artistically creative time in China's history, that succeeded the Han Dynasty (206 BC- 220 AD). For example, see a bronze waterdropper in the form of a mythical beast cast crouching with its belly close to the ground, the head with a flat snout and mouth slightly open showing sharp teeth, illustrated in Rokucho no bijutsu (Arts of the Six Dynasties), Tokyo, 1976, pl. 159; and another vessel offered at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1998, lot 1041. From the Han dynasty, bronze pieces were increasingly made for utilitarian use, many of which were in the form of zoomorphic or semi-zoomorphic vessels. These objects often represented the taste which prevailed amongst scholarly circles; see a bronze animal form container with the beast holding a bowl in its mouth for storing water for the scholar's desk, illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebre d'Argencé, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1966, pl. XLVIII, together with a tapir-form vessel.

The inspiration of a waterpot in the shape of a tiger may have also come from archaic bronze tiger figures which are invariably modelled with a powerful sinuous body in a crouching pose. See three tigers recorded by Orvar Karlbeck to have been discovered at Jincun near Luoyang, as part of a massive tripod with the tigers forming finial for the cover. One of these tigers was sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 2000, lot 66; another is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Maxwell Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art, New York, 1987, pl. 13; and the third now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is published in Osvald Siren, Kinas Kunst under Tre Artusenden, Stockholm, 1942, pl. 41A.

A number of Qianlong cloisonné enamel animal-form vessels can be found in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 119, a mythical beast figure, pl. 120, a tapir-form zun, pl. 121, an ox-shaped wine vessel, and pl. 122, a cock-form container. Compare also a group of vessels made for the emperor's studio which includes a covered box, a waterpot, a brush-holder and an ink-stand, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, published in Zhongguo jin yin oli falangqi quanji, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pl. 10.

General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885) first distinguished himself in the Crimean War (1853-1856), where he took part in the siege of Sebastopol. He was a key member of the commission drawing up the boundary between Russia and Turkey after the war. In 1860 he was ordered to China where Britain was involved in the Second Opium War. Based in Shanghai, he became commander of a militia group known as 'The Ever Victorious Army' which successfully defended the city and suppressed the Taiping uprising. Gordon was given the title 'titu', the highest grade in the Chinese army, from the Emperor, and the British Government promoted him to Lieutenant-Colonel. He was made a companion of the Bath and earned the popular nickname, "Chinese" Gordon. After five years in China, he returned to Britain in 1865.

A hexagonal ‘Jun’-type flower pot, early Ming dynasty, which sold for £735,650 / $1,182,999 / €268,497, 10-times its high estimate of £50,000-70,000 / $77,500-109,000. Photo: Sotheby's

of hexagonal section, the straight sides flaring steeply to an everted rim, all supported on a stepped base with six short feet, covered overall with a rich and mottled lavender-blue glaze thinning to pale olive green at the angles, the base pierced with five small circular apertures and incised with the Chinese character shi (ten), with silver-inlaid wood stand  Quantity: 2 - 16.4cm., 6 1/2 in. Estimate 50,000-70,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 735,650 GBP

NOTE: A slightly larger flowerpot of this form and glaze, but inscribed with the Chinese character 'eight' on the base, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 22; and another of larger dimensions, included in the Japan Society Exhibition of Japanese, Corean, Chinese Pottery, Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1914, cat. no. 295, was sold at Christie's New York, 23rd June 1982, lot 51.

Amongst the Imperial monochromes offered from the collection of Richard Fairfax William Cartwright (1903-1954) at Aynhoe Park,

A pair of rubyglazed cups of Yongzheng marks and period reached £373,250 / $600,223 / €437,149, against an estimate of £60,000-80,000 / $93,000-124,000 / (fivetimes their high estimate). Photo: Sotheby's

each with rounded sides rising from a short tapering foot, the exterior covered with a rich ruby-pink enamel glaze displaying a soft dimpled texture, leaving the interior and base glazed white, the base with a six-character Yongzheng mark within a circle  Quantity: 2 - 9.1cm., 3 5/8 in Estimate 60,000-80,000 GBP. Lot sold 373,250 GBP.

PROVENANCE: Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1910.

The Cartwright collection of Qing monochrome wares

NOTE: A closely related pair of cups is published in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV, Hong Kong 1995, pl. 25; another pair was sold in our New York rooms, 26th March 1996, lot 189; and a third pair, from the estate of John B. Trevor, was sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 2007, lot 340. For a slightly smaller cup of this type, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 303, pl. 132; a single cup sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 12/13th May 1976, lot 210; and a slightly smaller pair sold at Christie's New York, 3rd December 1992, lot 313.

According to S.J. Vainker in Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, New York, 1991, p. 206, pink enamel of this type was developed in China in the final years of Kangxi's reign and was applied by 'blowing it through a bamboo tube covered with a fine silk gauze at one end'.

A fine white jade ‘Boy and Lotus’ group made £229,250 / $368,657 /€268,497, 19-times its low estimate of £8,000-12,000 / $12,400-18,680.  Photo: Sotheby's

finely and intricately worked to depict a recumbent boy supported on a large lotus leaf, clasping a lotus leaf in his hand, with a basket of peaches before him and a small tree shrew clambering up his leg, the jade of a pure, even white tone with russet inclusions to the reverse and underside; 10.1cm., 4 in. Estimate 8,000-12,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 229,250 GBP