Lot 3613. A fine and brilliantly enamelled famille-rose moonflask, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795). Estimate 17,000,000 — 20,000,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the well-potted body of flattened globular form with rounded sides rising to a cylindrical neck with a flared rim, flanked on each side by two moulded chilong handles in underglaze blue, all supported on a rounded rectangular splayed foot, the exterior colourfully decorated in underglaze blue and famille-rose enamels with peony blossoms borne on meandering foliate scrolls further issuing delicately picked out blossoms, including clusters of lotus blooms, the rim decorated with a ruyi band below the gilt rim and around the foot, all delicately picked out in shades of rose pink, blue, yellow and green, the recessed base inscribed with an underglaze-blue six-character seal mark; 31.2 cm, 12 1/4  in.

Provenance: A private European collection.

Notes: The present moonflask is highly unusual for its form and design. No flasks of the exact same shape and decoration are known to exist. However, a closely related famille-rose handled-moonflask, of comparable form and painted similarly with floral scrolls using almost the same palette of colours, yet of a much larger size and flanked by a pair of pink-enamelled dragon handles of a different form, was sold in these rooms, 27th April 1993, lot 217 (fig. 1). Brilliantly enamelled, the present flask is of an innovative form and an optimal size and is a pleasure to see and to handle. Among the blue foliage, some are painted with underglaze cobalt blue, some overglaze blue enamelled, while for some other details utilised the combination of the two types of blues, possibly to counterbalance the otherwise vivid blooms. The attention to the meticulous details illustrates the unrivalled standard of imperial porcelain production during the Qianlong reign.

Famille-rose ‘peony’ moonfask, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period. Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 27th April 1993, lot 217.

Possibly unique, the present moonflask nevertheless is closely related to the yangcai style, as evident in its painting, colouring, floral and foliate motifs. Yangcai, literally meaning ‘foreign colours’, was a term used by the Qing Court, including the Qianlong Emperor, to refer to a group of imperial porcelains, exquisitely decorated with bright colours of delicate shades in Western painting techniques, displaying strong influence of European enamelled wares brought to Court by the Jesuits.

See a pair of yangcai vases in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, painted in similar style with various exotic flowers and lingzhi fungus among scrolling leaves, but lacking decorations in underglaze blue, dated according to the Court record to the 7th year of the Qianlong period (1742), included in the Museum exhibition Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2002, pl. V-29, and again in Liao Pao Show ed., Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, cat. no. 33. Lotus scrolls similar to that on this vase can also be found on a Qianlong-marked yellow-ground yangcai wall vase, ibid., cat. no. 20; the wall vase is inscribed with an imperial poem the Emperor wrote specific for it in 1742, illustrating his Majesty’s personal interest in this type of porcelains. Similar lotus blooms are also found on a Qianlong-marked yellow-ground famille-rose vase with anbaxian motifs and dragon handles, sold in these rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3608, now in the collection of Long Museum, Shanghai. See also a Qianlong-marked teapot, decorated with similar scrolling acanthus leaves, Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung Reign, op.cit., cat. no. 4; and a yellow-ground famille-rose bowl painted with exotic blooms from the Qing Court collection, now preserved in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 101.