A rare underglaze-red and famille-verte 'rose' vase, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722)

Note: This exquisite, sparse and peaceful design in which blank white space is predominating, as regularly seen on album-leaf paintings, is highly unusual for Qing porcelain, and the chosen combination of underglaze copper-red and overglaze enamels is equally rare. The present design is, however, known in two similar versions, with the bud to the left or right of the main bloom, and a very similar design appears also on one other shape, on small water pots, where the buds or blooms can be painted in overglaze iron-red and occasionally other enamels. A very similar vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published together with a matching water pot in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 41-2, pls 24 and 25; a vase and two water pots in the Shanghai Museum are illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, ed., Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pls 83-5; another vase and water pot are illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. 2, pls 148 and 149.

From the Meiyintang collection. A rare underglaze-red and famille-verte vase with roses, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 8.8cm., 3 1/2 in. Estimate 1,200,000—1,500,000 HKD. Lot Sold 2,420,000 HKD at Hong Kong 7th April 2011, lot 2. Photo Sotheby's. 

Cf. my post: A rare underglaze-red and famille-verte vase with roses, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722) 

Similar vases are also preserved in the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum, London, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Ming Style Polychrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 2006, no. B 702; in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 579; and one from the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 737, sold in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 2.

Vase with flower spays, Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period, AD 1662–1722. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue, underglaze copper-red and overglaze green and black enamels, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province; 8,7 x 9,1 cm. , Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF B702 © Trustees of the British Museum