Lot 3716. A rare turquoise-ground famille-rose 'flower scrolls' teapot and cover, seal mark and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820);  16 cm., 6 1/4  in. Estimate  1,800,000 — 2,200,000 HKD (206,921 — 252,903 EUR). Lot sold 2,240,000 HKD (257,501 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

the finely potted ovoid body rising to a short tapered neck, the body set to one side with a large loop handle and to the other with an elegant S-shaped spout, brightly enamelled in the famille-rose palette and gilt overall with leafy scrolls bearing stylised lotus blossoms, a stylised iron-red bat depicted with outstretched wings on both sides suspending a lingzhi bloom, all against an even turquoise ground, a border of ruyi blooms alternating with and trefoi motifs encircling the neck decorated with a 'classic' scroll, all above a border of upright petal border and a dotted band encircling the foot, the recessed turquoise base inscribed in gilt with a six-character seal mark against a white cartouche, the domed cover similarly decorated and surmounted by a bud finial decorated with a floret, the interior similarly enamelled turquoise.

Provenance: A private Japanese collection, formed in the 1960s-1970s.
Sotheby's London, 14th May 2008, lot 717.

Bibliography: Taji Shuichi, Porcelain of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 59.

Note: similar teapot was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st November 1974, lot 331. See also a teapot similarly decorated on an apple-green ground, sold at Christie's London, 14th July 1980, lot 253. Compare two turquoise-ground teapots of a more globular form decorated with a variation of the lotus scroll motif sold in these rooms, 20th March 1978, lot 219; and one at Christie's Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot 572.

For further examples of colour-ground Jiaqing teapots of varying forms and decoration, see a pink-ground version sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1568; a yellow ground teapot sold at Christie's London, 16th April 1980, lot 93; and another at Christie's Hong Kong, 17th January 1989, lot 700. A teapot with inscription on a coral ground was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th April 1997, lot 56, and again in these rooms, 20th June 2001, lot 39; one on a green-ground was sold in these rooms, 6th December 1994, lot 212; and two were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st November 2004, lot 922, and 30th May 2006, lot 1465. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 07 oct. 2015