Lot 5053. A rare Yixing 'chrysanthemum' teapot and a wood cover, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng-Qianlong period (1723-1795); w. 17.4 cm.  Lot sold: 94,500 HKD (Estimate: 5,000 - 8,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2021

Note: In the 7th year of Yongzheng period (corresponding to 1729), the Qing imperial workshop records Gezuo chengzuo huoji qingdang [Records of the edicts of the various handiwork workshops] recorded that,

"On the seventh day of the eighth month, according to a notice from Yuanmingyuan, Director Haiwang presented a yixing chrysanthemum-shaped teapot on the 30th day of the seventh month. Wood models of such should be sent to Nian Xiyao to be copied in porcelain in jun-imitation, sacrificial-red and sacrificial-blue glazes. So it was decreed."

The Yongzheng Emperor's admiration for the yixing chrysanthemum teapot was demonstrated by his commission of imperial porcelain teapots in various glazes based on this model, and similar teapots continued to be made during the Qianlong period.

Compare a similar example from the collection of Yao Shiying, illustrated in Liang Baiquan (ed.), Yixing Purple Clay Ware, Hong Kong, 1991, no. 22; and two other sold at Christie's New York, the first from the Falk Collection, sold on 20th September 2001, lot 160 and the other on 18th September 2003, lot 337. During the Yongzheng period, the chrysanthemum-form was employed for a number of wares including dishes, teapots and bowls. For a jun-imitation porcelain teapot of this form from the J.M. Hu and Shimentang collections, see Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs: A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1921-2021 exhibition catalogue, London, 2021, cat. no. 97.

Sotheby's. Echoes of Fragrance – Evolution of Tea Culture from the Tang to the Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 16 December 2021