Lot 172. A rare gilt-decorated lac burgaute bowl, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Diamètre: 9,6 cm. (3 ¾ in.). Estimate EUR 4,000 - EUR 6,000. Price realised EUR 8,125. © Christie's Image Ltd 2020.
Reposant sur un petit pied droit, la porcelaine est recouverte d'une couche de laque or rehaussée d'un décor en incrustations de nacre. Il est à décor continu d'un lettré debout dans un paysage arboré et rocailleux, encadré par deux frises de motifs géométriques.
Provenance: Christie’s London, South Kensington, 16 May 2014, lot 775.
Note: The use of lacquer on porcelain has been much admired, but is very rare since the application of the lacquer to the surface of the porcelain requires great skill and would have added considerably to the original cost of the item so adorned. It is also rather fragile, and it is likely that of the few examples of this type made, even fewer have survived into the present day.
It was under the aegis of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722) that there was renewed interest in the lacquering of porcelain. However, only a very small number of Kangxi porcelain vessels decorated with lacquer have survived. One of these, a small jar decorated with mother-of-pearl applied to lacquer in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague is illustrated by M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre in Qing Porcelain: Famille verte, Famille rose, London, 1987, p. 65, no. 67. See, also, the rare porcelain rouleau vase decorated with rock, flowers, and butterflies in black lacquer and mother-of-pearl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dated mid-17th-early 18th century, illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy, Mother-of-Pearl, A Tradition in Asian Lacquer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006, p. 43, fig. 32.
Christie's. Art d'Asie, Paris, 23 June 2020
