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12 mars 2019

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sales 2019 To Take Place on 3 April

An extremely rare and exceptional blue and white basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle period

Lot 3. An Extremely Rare and Exceptional Blue and White Basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425); 25.6 cm, 10 1/8 in. Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000/ US$ 1,020,000 - 1,530,000. Courtesy Sotheby's. 

Hong Kong - Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sale Series 2019 on 3 April will be highlighted by a themed sale dedicated to the renowned Tianminlou Collection. Other sales include Scholarly and Imperial Works of Art from a Distinguished Collection, an outstanding collection of scholarly and imperial works of art, predominantly from the late Ming to Qianlong period, carefully assembled by an erudite individual with a truly discerning eye; The Robert Youngman Collection of Chinese Jade II, featuring jades from the Neolithic Period to Qing dynasty; Fine Imperial Porcelain from a Distinguished Private Collection, which consists of twelve Ming and Qing imperial porcelains assembled by a discerning private collector since the 1980s; Important Chinese Art, a tightly curated assemblage of fine and rare porcelain and works of art with a particular focus on the Ming and Qing dynasties; and Six Treasures from an Important Private Collection which includes masterpieces of Chinese porcelain from the 13th to the 15th century. Noteworthy are two Guan wares formerly in the celebrated collection of Mrs Alfred Clark, as well as an extremely rare blue and white stand dating to the early 15th century. 

Nicolas Chow, Chairman, Sotheby’s Asia, International Head and Chairman, Chinese Works of Art, comments, “We are honoured to be entrusted with a fine selection of the Hong Kong-based Tianminlou collection, which boasts one of the best private blue and white porcelain assemblages in the world. The dedicated sale consists of a carefully selected group of eighteen pieces of Ming and Qing porcelains and is the first time treasures from the collection are offered in the market.”

Selected Imperial Ceramics from the Tianminlou Collection

The Tianminlou Collection of Chinese porcelain assembled by Ko Shih Chao since the 1950s is of unparalleled quality, and includes the greatest assemblage of imperial blue and white-porcelain in private hands. Ko Shih Chao was not only a discerning collector, but above all had himself an excellent understanding of the subject. He was chairman of the honourable Min Chiu Society of collectors and actively involved in the affairs of all the relevant Hong Kong museums, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Fung Ping Shan Museum of Hong Kong University. He was known as a generous lender to exhibitions and made his pieces readily available for educational aspect. 

The Tianminlou Collection – part of which is offered in this sale – offers a very rare, astutely chosen overview of the technical and stylistic developments of the kilns’ production during this time. Highlights of this sale include two rare early Ming blue and white porcelains of exceptional quality, both brilliantly painted with a classic design of Indian lotus: a basin from the Yongle period with an elegant form derived from Middle Eastern metalwork and a sumptuous Xuande reign-marked fruit bowl. The sale also includes an extremely rare blue and white dish with a vivid dragon design from the Xuande period, and an outstanding blue and white jarlet from the early Ming dynasty, boldly painted with winged dragons above cresting waves, encapsulating the power of the Emperor. 

An exceptional and extremely rare blue and white 'winged dragon' jarlet, Ming dynasty, Yongle – early Xuande period

Lot 4. An Exceptional and Extremely Rare Blue and White 'Winged Dragon' Jarlet, Ming Dynasty, Yongle–Early Xuande Period; 11.4 cm, 4 1/2 in. Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000/ US$ 1,020,000 - 1,530,000. Lot Sold 26,575,000 HKD (3,423,126 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: Selected Imperial Ming Ceramics from the Tianminlou Collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 03 Apr 2019

An extremely rare and exceptional blue and white basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle period

Lot 3. An Extremely Rare and Exceptional Blue and White Basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425); 25.6 cm, 10 1/8 in. Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000/ US$ 1,020,000 - 1,530,000. Lot Sold 33,775,000 HKD (4,350,558 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: Selected Imperial Ming Ceramics from the Tianminlou Collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 03 Apr 2019

An outstanding and large blue and white 'Indian lotus' fruit bowl, mark and period of Xuande (1426-1435)

Lot 7. An Outstanding and Large Blue and White 'Indian Lotus' Fruit Bowl, Mark and Period of Xuande (1426-1435)29.8 cm, 11 3/4 in. Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000/ US$ 1,020,000 - 1,530,000Lot Sold 24,175,000 HKD (3,113,982 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: Selected Imperial Ming Ceramics from the Tianminlou Collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 03 Apr 2019

CWOA - AN EXTREMELY RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' DISH, MARK AND PERIOD OF XUANDE

Lot 8. An Extremely Rare Blue and White 'Dragon' Dish, Mark and Period of Xuande (1426-1435); 19.5 cm, 7 5/8 in. Estimate: HK$3,000,000 - 5,000,000/ US$ 383,000 - 640,000Lot Sold 9,535,000 HKD (1,228,203 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: Selected Imperial Ming Ceramics from the Tianminlou Collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 03 Apr 2019

An Exceptional and Large Yellow Jade Animal-shaped Plague, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC)

An Exceptional and Large Yellow Jade Animal-shaped Plague, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC); 22 cm, 8 5/8 in. Estimate: HK$25,000,000 - 30,000,000/ US$ 3,190,000 - 3,830,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.

 The magnificent and unusually large yellow jade zoomorphic plaque formerly in the distinguished collection of the writer and aesthete Charles Vignier, represents the peak of jade art of the late Eastern Zhou period in the 4th-3rd century BC, the finest archaic jade ever to come to the market.

This large, masterfully designed, dazzlingly cut and superbly polished jade carving belongs to an extremely small, fascinating group of animal plaques of the Warring States period (475-221 BC). The imaginatively rendered beast impresses at first glance through the powerful, yet elegant rhythm of its undulating silhouette, and at closer inspection through the exquisite ornamentation and subtle relief on both its sides. It is a prime example of the peak period of Chinese jade carving in the late Eastern Zhou (770-256 BC), when jade craftsmen were unsurpassed at making optimal use of the stone at their disposal, had developed a complex and distinctive style of their own, and finished their works to perfection.

CWOA - A SUPERB AND EXCEEDINGLY RARE BLUE AND WHITE STAND

A Superb and Exceedingly Rare Blue and White Stand, Ming dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425); 17.3 cm, 6 3/4 in. Estimate: HK$20,000,000 - 30,000,000/ US$ 2,550,000 - 3,830,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.

This extremely rare stand, derived from Middle Eastern metalwork and brilliantly painted in blue and white, is among the most treasured of all Chinese porcelains. It is one of only seven recorded examples in the world, and the only example in private hands.

It is a legacy of the dynamism of the Yongle court, when China was at its most open. After massive fleets were sent off to distant shores under the leadership of Zheng He, treasures from the Middle East were received as gifts and brought back to China. A sumptuous metal stand created under Mamluk rule in Egypt or Syria would have been the inspiration for this magnificent stand, which was then superbly created in porcelain at the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen. Apart from one in the British Museum, originally acquired in Damascus, Syria, the rest are all in museum collections in China. The stand from the Qing court collection, now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, was treasured by the Qianlong Emperor, who ranked it alongside Ru and guan wares, composed two poems for it and commissioned a zitan stand and cloisonné liner to be made for it in the Palace Workshops.

Other Highlights

CWOA - AN OUTSTANDING AND RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'POMEGRANATE' VASE, MING DYNASTY, XUANDE PERIOD

Lot 3629. An Outstanding And Rare Blue And White 'Pomegranate' Vase, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425); 18.7 cm, 7 3/8 in. Estimate: HK$18,000,000 - 25,000,000Lot sold 22,015,000 HKD (2,835,752 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

cf. my post: An Outstanding And Rare Blue And White 'Pomegranate' Vase, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425)

An Extremely Rare Turquoise-Ground Yangcai 'Dragon' Vase, Tianqiuping, Seal Mark and Period Of Qianlong (1736-1795)

An Extremely Rare Turquoise-Ground Yangcai 'Dragon' Vase, Tianqiuping, Seal Mark and Period Of Qianlong (1736-1795); 50.8 cm, 20 in. Estimate: HK$18,000,000 - 25,000,000/ US$ 2,300,000 - 3,190,000Courtesy Sotheby's.

A Fine And Magnificent Cobalt-Blue And Iron red 'Dragon' Vase, Meiping, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795)

Lot 3619. A Fine And Magnificent Cobalt-Blue And Iron red 'Dragon' Vase, Meiping, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795)27.4 cm, 10 3/4 in. Estimate: HK$18,000,000 - 25,000,000/ US$ 2,300,000 - 3,190,000Lot sold 30,175,000 HKD (3,886,842 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: A Fine And Magnificent Cobalt-Blue And Iron red 'Dragon' Vase, Meiping, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795)

 

CWOA - A LARGE IMPERIAL YELLOW JADE 'CHILONG' DOUBLE VASE, QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

 

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Lot 3622. An Imperial Large Yellow Jade 'Chilong' Double Vase, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736-1795); 22.9 cm, 9 in. Estimate: HK$15,000,000 - 20,000,000/ US$ 1,920,000 - 2,550,000Lot sold 16,375,000 HKD (2,109,264 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

powerfully worked with a large dragon and eight small chilong clambering over and around the the double vase formed of a conjoined cong-form vessel and cylinder amidst ruyi-form clouds, the vase rendered embedded in jagged rocks above cresting waves originating from a swirl at the base, the stone of a pale yellowish-celadon colour with a lustrous sheen and accentuated with russet inclusions and striations skilfully incorporated in the design.

Provenance: Collection of T.Y. Chao (1912-1999).
Sotheby's New York, 9th/10th October 1987, lot 186.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st November 1999, lot 566. 

ExhibitedThe Grandeur of Chinese Art Treasures: Min Chiu Society Golden Jubilee Exhibition, Hong Kong, 2010-2011, cat. no. 216.

LiteratureSotheby’s: Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 374.

‘Heaven and Earth’
A Magnificent Yellow Jade Vase

Dr Hajni Elias

The present vase represents a harmonious blend of technical prowess and artistic imagination. It is an arresting artefact, impressive for its use of a large yellow jade boulder that has been skilfully fashioned into an object seeped in classical symbolism while being contemporary at the same time. The vase is decorated in high relief carving with a large dragon and eight small chilong climbing amongst ruyi-form clouds over and around a conjoined cong and cylinder embedded in rocks above cresting waves. The beauty of the pale yellow jade is made prominent by its smooth patina and the use of its natural russet fissures that have been skilfully incorporated into the design.

The use of two distinct geometric shapes, the circle in the form of a cylinder and the square represented by the cong is perfectly balanced by the flowing and undulating forms of the animals, clouds and waves. In classical literature the circle and square together represent the pairing of Heaven and Earth. Thus, the carver of the vase has skilfully created a design which at first glance appears to merely combine two distinct forms, but explored closer, represents one of the most powerful symbolisms known in Chinese art, the ‘Cosmic Universe’. While the large dragon is the symbol of the emperor, in this arrangement it represents the supreme imperial power. The figure of the dragon, accompanied by its companions, the chilong, is depicted ascending from the waves and rocks, reaching to take its place as the ultimate ruler. The maker of this vase has thus created a visual programme which is about the supreme power of the emperor in the Chinese cosmic universe.

In order to better understand the hidden symbolism of this magnificent vase, let us examine the significance of the two important shapes, the circle and the square in Chinese art. One of the earliest circle form objects known in China are the bijade discs, found carefully laid on the bodies of the royals in the tombs of the Hongshan (c. 3800-2700 BC) and the Liangzhu (c. 3400-2250 BC) cultures in northeast and east China. According to the Confucian cannon, the Rites of Zhou(Zhou li), a ruler was expected to use a green jade bi for worshipping Heaven and a yellow jade cong to worship the Earth.1 It is a challenge for any jade carver to form the perfect circle and perhaps for this reason it is a shape that has been valued so much. While historically the circle represented Heaven, in opposition to the square that symbolised Earth, in popular culture, especially though the influence of the teachings of Daoism, circles came to stand for perfection, oneness and unity. Furthermore, the flawless circle of the Daoist yin and yang symbol represents the reunion and harmonious blend of conflicting forces.

In contrast, the straight lines and sharp corners of the square symbolise the concept of rules, regulations and the correct way of doing things (fangfa). The idiom zhengfang comes to mind, which literally means ‘square and straight’ and used when describing one who is morally upright like the perfect square. The cong that forms part of the present vase represents another archaic shape known to the Chinese artist. Early examples of cong objects were unearthed from numerous tombs of the Liangzhu culture around Lake Tai in Jiangsu province. In the form of a tube it is square on the outside with a hollow cylindrical centre, thus it combines the two significant shapes of a circle and a square. Cong are amongst the most impressive yet enigmatic of all ancient Chinese jade carvings. Although they were objects that circulated amongst collectors throughout history for centuries, their nature and function remain a mystery. Recent archaeological excavations show that they were associated mostly with male tomb occupants, who, if powerful, could have a considerable number of them in a burial pit.2 While there is still no consensus amongst scholars as to the artistic intention behind the combination of circle and square, the Warring States period poet Song Yu (fl. 298-263 BC) employed the following metaphor in his poem titled Rhapsody on Talks about Greatness (Dayan fu) describing the ultimate goal that all men should aspire to:
Take square Earth as a chariot
Take round Heaven as its canopy
The shining long sword [accompanying the great man] 
thus leans far beyond Heaven.3

This passage illustrates how the Chinese in ancient times considered Heaven to be round and Earth to be square, and the two together were compared to the round umbrella-like form of the canopy and square body of the chariot. Heaven thus became the dome that covered the flat Earth. This cosmological perspective, known as the ‘Canopy Heaven (gaitian)’, was also used to explain how celestial bodies turned around the celestial pole in daily orbits in a plane parallel to the earth’s surface.4

Bearing the above in mind, we can see that the vase is imbued with imperial symbolism and thus is almost certainly an object made on imperial order. Its fine carving, material and imaginative artistic composition corroborates its attribution to the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1796) who was an avid collector of outstanding jade carvings. From the imperial records we know that Qianlong’s jade collection surpassed that of any of his predecessors in quantity and quality, and two-thirds of the more than thirty-thousand jade pieces in the Palace Museum today were either acquired or made during his reign. Furthermore, he was not only an enthusiastic collector of jades, but a great patron of artists working in the imperial palace workshops where creative and exciting pieces, such as the present vase, would have been produced to cater for his exacting personal taste.5

Apart from its imperial provenance, the present vase was also in the collection of the prominent Hong Kong shipping tycoon and real estate developer T.Y. Chao (1912-1999). Chao had already been collecting Chinese ceramics for decades, from the 1960s, when he started buying jade objects with a preference for large and imposing pieces.6

While no two jade carvings are ever the same, see a double-zun shaped vase from the Qing court collection illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, no. 145 (fig. 1); and another conjoined piece published in Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese jades], vol. 6: Qing, Shijiazhuan, 1993, pl. 236 (fig. 2). See also a yellow jade archaic form vase carved with climbing chilong around the body included ibid., pl. 241; together with two examples of white jade vases of conjoined forms, pls 243 and 244.

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fig.1. Jade double vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, Qing court collection. © Collection of the Palace Museum Beijing.

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fig.2. Celadon jade double vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period. © Collection of the Tianjin Museum

Zhou li zhengyi [Rectification of the Rites of Zhou], Beijing, 2000, 35.1390.
2 See Lillian Lan-ying Tseng, Picturing Heaven in Early China, London and Cambridge, 2011, p. 43.
3 Yan Kejun, Quan shangshu sandai wen, 10.2a, vol. 1 of Quan shangshu sandy Qin Han Sanguo Liuchao wen. Translation in Tseng, op.cit., p. 45.
4 See Tseng, op.cit., p. 47 for more information on the cosmological aspect of the Canopy Heaven. See also Dirk L. Couprie, ‘An Ancient Chinese Flat Earth Cosmology,’ Tsinghua Journal of Western Philosophy, 2016, no. 3.
5 On Qianlong as a collector see Hajni Elias, ‘Qianlong: The Imperial Collector,’ Arts of Asia, 2006, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 66-84.
6 Giuseppe Eskenazi and Hajni Elias, A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, pp. 113-4.

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Lot 3303. A Rare and Superbly Enamelled Ruby-Groud Falangcai 'Peony' Bowl, Puce-Enamel Yuzhi Mark and Period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 11 cm, 4 3/8 in. Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 15,000,000/ US$ 1,280,000 - 1,920,000. Unsold. Courtesy Sotheby's.

delicately and thinly potted with deep rounded sides supported on a short straight foot, the exterior superbly enamelled in rich, vibrant hues with luxuriant peony blooms of varying sizes and colours borne on slender stalks swaying in the breeze and issuing further stems of foliage rendered in shaded tones of green, the tips of the petals meticulously accentuated with white tips, all reserved against a translucent ruby-red ground, the interior and base left white, the latter enamelled in puce with a four-character yuzhi mark, wood stand.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection.

A New Palette for the Kangxi Emperor

Falangcai of the Kangxi reign – porcelains from Jingdezhen painted in the Imperial workshops of the Forbidden City in Beijing with ‘foreign enamels’ – are among the rarest and most dazzling ceramic wares of the Qing dynasty. Unlike most other wares of that period they were individually produced, subject to close scrutiny by the Emperor, and each piece is unique.

The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) was one of China’s greatest rulers, who anchored the foreign Qing dynasty firmly in the Empire’s long, continuous history. It was a prosperous period, when China was a powerful magnet for embassies from the West. The Emperor was an intelligent and highly educated ruler, who unquestioningly embraced classical Chinese learning as a central foundation of Chinese culture, but at the same time openly welcomed modern progress, even if it came from outside. Although the arts and crafts as such were clearly not on the top of his agenda, he became a particularly engaged patron due to his interest in technical development.

To this end he had workshops for a wide variety of scientific instruments and other practical and decorative objects set up in the Forbidden City, very close to his personal living quarters, where he could follow, encourage and criticise any progress made in their production. During his reign these workshops resembled sophisticated experimental laboratories where court artists, artisans and technicians explored new scientific discoveries, manufacturing methods and substances. For the same reasons he welcomed foreigners to the court, mainly from Europe, to provide information on international standards of scientific and technical knowledge and to supply skills and materials unknown in China.

European Jesuit priests had, among many other things, brought European enamel wares as gifts to the court, with the ulterior motif to gain access to the Emperor through foreign novelties. As the Emperor was keen to have them reproduced by the Imperial palace workshops, European enamelling specialists as well as the enamels themselves were sent from Europe. The new colours were first used on copper vessels where, like in Europe, they were applied overall to completely hide the metal body underneath, their floral designs contrasting with brightly coloured backgrounds (see, for example, a bowl with prunus in the British Museum, London, accession no. 1939,1014.1, also in Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command. An Introduction to Ch’ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 10).

The first ceramics enamelled in Beijing closely followed these enamelled metal wares in style and colouration. The same enamels as used for decorating copper were applied to brown Yixing stonewares and white Jingdezhen porcelains. Although at Jingdezhen enamels had long been applied onto fully glazed and fired porcelain vessels, these Chinese predecessors do not seem to have been taken as models. The first enamellers in Beijing – perhaps Westerners – may have considered the shiny porcelain glaze an unsuitable surface for the enamels to adhere, so that porcelains partly or fully unglazed and left in the biscuit were specially created at Jingdezhen and supplied to the court for this new imperial adventure. A unique vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with a similar puce background, was provided as a blank biscuit vessel without any glaze, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 1. For bowls and dishes peculiar orders must have gone out to Jingdezhen to provide specimens with a glazed interior and base, and an unglazed exterior. The unglazed parts were then fully covered with enamel, just like on a copper vessel. Background colours may also have been deemed desirable to create smooth surfaces rather than designs raised in slight relief, since even some Yixing wares are covered in dark brown enamel, of the same tone as the original stoneware, applied as background colour around the design.

This work did not start until 1711, leaving only a dozen years for the technique to be perfected during the Kangxi reign. The enamels used in that period were still imported pigments, which must have contributed to the rarity of completed items. By far the most special among the new foreign enamels was the ruby- or rose-red enamel tone, not only since it was dramatically different from all locally created colours, but also because it was derived from gold. The Imperial workshops had apparently not yet mastered it even in the 6th year of Yongzheng when, under guidance of Prince Yunxiang, brother of the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-35), eighteen new enamel colours were reported to have been successfully produced there.

The present bowl is wonderful testimony to this collaboration between the potters in Jingdezhen and the painters in Beijing. The former threw and fired the plain porcelain bowl in Jiangxi province, south of the Yangzi River, the glaze carefully added to leave a clean, glazed rim and a neat, unglazed footring; the latter painted a highly complex design of naturalistically interlaced flowers in a wide variety of colours and shades, then applied a remarkably even rouge-red background, and fired the bowl again, to admirable perfection, within the Forbidden City. Although such Kangxi examples are among the earliest porcelains decorated in the new Western enamelling manner, the present bowl displays complete mastery of this sophisticated new method of decoration – a distinction not shared by all its contemporaries. 

The new enamelling technique was introduced to and employed at Jingdezhen not much later, but the differences between contemporary wares created with similar materials in the two different manufactories are vast. What is special about these early pieces from the Beijing palace workshops is the remarkable variety in their range of enamels, which seems to vary from piece to piece, whereas for the yangcai or famille-rose porcelains produced at Jingdezhen a standard palette was very soon developed and employed, which allowed for little flexibility.

The other all-important difference between Beijing and Jingdezhen manufactories is that the latter had always produced porcelains on a massive scale. Individual items were completed production-line style, with many different hands contributing to every single piece. The Beijing workshops on the other hand, located in a pavilion within the confines of the palace, were a completely different setup. Here individual artists would create individual works of art, and the whole complex was small in scale, not least for simple reasons of space and inconvenience to ordinary palace life. The present bowl is unique, like all falangcai bowls in the Kangxi period, even though they all share overall stylistic features, equally pointing to a small operation.

Inspiration for some of the decoration devised during this period probably came from the Westerners who mastered the enamelling technique, as many of the early falangcai porcelains are decorated with fanciful stylised blooms that are uncharacteristic of Chinese ornament. Other designs, such as the present one, however, derived more directly from Chinese flower painting, as court painters worked here side by side with enamellers and were at times recruited to do some enamelling work themselves. The decoration on the present bowl, from the opulent blooming peonies with dense curly petals to the variegated leaves, displays a scene of opulence and prosperity well-suited for the period and evokes the tradition of Chinese paintings.

Despite a lack of identical examples, there are related imperial vessels of slightly different proportions or designs preserved in major museums and private collections. A shallow red-ground bowl with a puce-enamel yuzhi mark from the Qing Court collection, dominated on the exterior by four lavish peony blooms in blue, green, lilac and orange enamels, is now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and included in the exhibition Shen bi danqing. Lang Shining lai Hua sanbai nian tezhan/Portrayals from a Brush Divine. A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of Giuseppe Castiglione’s Arrival in China, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2015, cat. no. I-15 (fig. 1). Gold granules are found in the lilac colour of that bowl, which is believed to be formulated with a mixture of cobalt-based blue and gold-derived red glass powders (see Wang Chu-Ping, ‘Examining the manufacture of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in the Kangxi-Yongzheng period through iron-red porcelains’, The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, January 2013, no. 358, pp. 54-55). The National Palace Museum in Taipei also has another red-ground bowl of similar size and shape from the Qing Court collection, but inscribed with a blue-enamel mark and decorated with poppies and asters, illustrated in Shen bi danqingop.cit., cat. no. I-17. See also a tripod incense burner in the Au Bakling collection, similarly depicting peonies against a ruby background on biscuit porcelain, illustrated on the cover of Chinese Ceramics. Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2003, Hong Kong, 2004. The frilly petals and the slender stems on the incense burner create an impression of daintiness, in contrast to the vitality and abundance suggested by the lush blooms and broad leaves on the present bowl. Compare another red-ground bowl with a blue-enamel yuzhi mark formerly in the collections of Robert Chang and Dr Alice Cheng, enamelled directly on the biscuit body with multicolour double lotuses and leaves in blue and green, sold three times in these rooms, most recently on 8th April 2013, lot 101.

Red-ground falangcai ‘peony’ bowl, puce-enamel yuzhi mark and period of Kangxi

Red-ground falangcai ‘peony’ bowl, puce-enamel yuzhi mark and period of Kangxi. © Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Further bowls adorned with peonies, albeit against yellow backgrounds, are preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing. A slightly larger bowl of this form with a puce-enamel yuzhi mark, splendidly enamelled with eight blooms in pink, green, blue and purple, together with variegated leaves, demonstrates a painting style similar to that of the present bowl (fig. 2). It is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museumop.cit., no. 4, where the throwing marks of the porcelain body underneath the enamels are visible, a feature also apparent on the present bowl. See two other examples with blue-enamel yuzhi marks from the Qing Court collection, ibid., nos 5-6.

 

Yellow-ground falangcai ‘peony’ bowl, puce-enamel yuzhi mark and period of Kangxi

 

Yellow-ground falangcai ‘peony’ bowl, puce-enamel yuzhi mark and period of Kangxi. © Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing.

There is a related group of falangcai bowls with stylised peony designs. Examples include a shallow puce-enamel marked bowl in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, painted with a scroll of three formalised flowerheads outlined in black against a red background, stylistically not dissimilar to cloisonné enamelled wares, illustrated in Kangxi dadi yu taiyangwang luyi shisi tezhan: zhongfa yishu wenhua de jiaohui/Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV. Sino-Franco Encounters in Arts and Culture, Taipei, 2011, cat. no. IV-35.

An Extremely Rare Jun Blue-Glazed Hexagonal Flower Pot, Early Ming Dynasty

Lot 3308. An Extremely Rare Jun Blue-Glazed Hexagonal Flower Pot, Early Ming Dynasty; 16.4 cm, 6 1/2 in. Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 15,000,000/ US$ 1,280,000 - 1,920,000Lot Sold 12,175,000 HKD (1,568,262 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

cf. my post: An Extremely Rare Jun Blue-Glazed Hexagonal Flower Pot, Early Ming Dynasty

 

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