Lot 4018. A very rare imperial Beijing enamelled miniature vase, Kangxi yuzhi mark within double-squares and of the period (1662-1722); 4 1/8 in. (10.4 cm.) high. Estimate 800,000 - HKD 1,000,000. Price realised HKD 2,180,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012.  

Supported on a flat base, the vase has an angular shoulder rising to a long slightly tapering neck. The exterior is brightly enamelled with multi-coloured peonies in various stages of bloom borne on meandering stems against a white ground. The base is inscribed in blue with a four-character mark within double-squares.

Provenance: A French private collection

Note: The Kangxi Emperor became deeply interested in the foreign imported enamelled metalwork and set up an enamel workshop inside the palace to facilitate the local production of these exotic metal-bodied wares. The enamels used to paint on metalwork during this period were mostly foreign imports, and the Kangxi Emperor even enlisted the French Jesuit missionary, Jean-Baptiste Gravereau, in 1719 to train native artisans at the enamel workshop the skills of enamelling. Many of the enamels on metal that were produced during the period were inscribed with a Kangxi Yuzhi mark, reflecting his admiration for luminous metalwork like the current example, and the water pot offered as the following lot in the current sale.

The richly painted pattern on the current example, with a variety of colour gradations, attests to the advanced level of skills achieved by the palace enamellers during the Kangxi period. Compare a lobed metal box painted with similar floral decoration on white ground in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, p. 172, no. 82.