Lot 1318. A fine and extremely rare underglaze-blue and iron-red-decorated Tibetan-style ewer, Qianlong six-character sealmark and of the period (1736-1795); 7 1/2 in. (19 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 4,500,000 - HKD 5,500,000. Price Realized HKD 6,840,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2006.  

The globular body finely painted with two iron-red dragons, each grasping a 'flaming pearl', amidst bats, flames and blue clouds, all between interlocking ruyi and crashing waves, the curved spout emerging from the open mouth of a mythical beast mask and decorated with bats amidst clouds, repeated around the drum-shaped mouth, the stepped neck with bands of bats, demi-florettes, trefoils and key-fret, the spreading foot with further bats and upright lappets, the rims of the spout, mouth and foot encircled by gilt and iron-red beads, box. 

Provenance: Edward T. Chow
S. C. Ko.

Literature: Chinese Porcelain, The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, no. 118

Exhibited: Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993, Catalogue no. 116.

Note: The Qianlong emperor, like his predecessors Emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, was a devout follower of Tibetan Buddhism, commissioning the building of numerous temples and the production of a wide range of ritual vessels for tribute and ceremonial use. This ewer was one such sacrificial utensil. Geng Baochang illustrates a line drawing of this type of ewer in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, 1993, p. 266, pl. 454, no. 9, and states that, as recorded in the Tai'an Gazetteer, these benpa hu or Tibetan vases, also known as zangcao ping, 'herbal storage jar', were used in the ceremonies carried out at the Taishan mountain temple in Shandong province from the Qianlong period onwards.

No other ewer of this exact design has been recorded. This type of vessel is also known as a 'pure water ewer', and other similar examples in this form but with different decoration are known, such as the famille rose enamelled example from the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, pl. 101, where the author suggests that "it was used on a Buddhist altar of the Tibetan-inspired Lamaist sect which delighted in exotic monster decorations and beaded borders.", p. 114.

It is also suggested that the shape of the present vessel was derived from pewter, as a benpa vase decorated to simulate pewter is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and illustrated op. cit., pl. 59. Compare the silver benpa ewer of related form in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuguan Cang Gongyiping Xuan, 1974, pl. 96; and another silver benpa vase illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, pl. 146, where the author mentions that these vessels were originally used in Tibet for displaying sprays of herbs and placed in front of images of Buddha.

Christie's. Imperial Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection - Jade Shears and Shimmering Feathers, Hong Kong, 28 November 2006