Lot 30. An Underglaze-Red Water Coupe, Pinguozun, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 14.6 cm., 5 3/4 in. Estimate 500,000 - 700,000 HKD. Lot sold 980,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's 2012

of globular form, the rounded sides rising from a recessed base to an incurved rim, decorated in bright underglaze red with sprays of stylized peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and hibiscus, each wreathed by feathery scrolls and picked out with deeper striation, all between a border of scrolling lotus around the neck and a band of lotus petals encircling the foot, and enclosed within lines of underglaze blue, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue

Exhibited: Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d’Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 146.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 733.

Note: Small apple-shaped jars such as the present piece were designed in the Kangxi reign (AD 1662-1722) and are also known in monochrome ‘peachbloom’ and ‘clair-de-lune’ versions. Other examples decorated with this underglaze copper-red design are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 39, pl. 22; and in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, ed., Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 72. One from the collection of Edward T. Chow, now in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, was sold in these rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 540; another was sold twice in these rooms, 1st November 1994, lot 173, and 31st October 2004, lot 172, and at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st December 2009, lot 1885, and is illustrated in Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 293.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part IV - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains, Hong Kong, 09 oct. 2012