A fine and very rare turquoise-glazed porcelain bowl with five bats in iron-red inside, China, underglaze blue four-character mark Jingwei Tang zhi (Made for the Hall of Veneration of Respect) within a double-square, Yongzheng-Qianlong period. Estimate 30000/40000 €. Sold 75.000 €. Photo Nagel

D. 17,8 cm. Good condition

Note: Jingwei Tang was the studio name of Li Hu (alias Duanren, style name Zhucun) a native of Cixi, a city within the sub-provincial city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Ming Wilson, in the exhibition catalogue Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998, quotes Wang Qingzheng to suggest that porcelains bearing the Jingwei Tang mark actually belonged to the Manchu high official Agedunbu (see p. 114). Although no supporting evidence is available, Jingwei Tang wares were noted in the Taoya (Ceramic Elegances) of 1906 by the government official Chen Liu (1863-1929) as porcelain with celadon glaze (ibid.).

Vessels with the same mark, celadon glaze and brown rim include a bowl and a dish in the Sir Percival David collection, now in the British Museum, London, the bowl included in the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, op. cit., cat. no. 47, and the dish published in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares, London, 1989, coll. no. A568; and a bowl and cover sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th May 2007, lot 1545. However, not all vessels with this mark are celadon-glazed which may be due to the continued use of the hall for several generations and the subsequent later production of porcelains; see a vase covered with a brown glaze in imitation of a bronze vessel, illustrated in Qingdai ciqi shangjian, Shanghai, 1994, pl. 151; and a pair of blue-glazed cups and saucers sold at Christie's New York, 18th September 2003, lot 355 

NAGEL. "Asian Art". Sale 722, 06/06/2015