(Left to Right). The Private Collection of Joseph Lau. A Fine Blue and White 'Lotus Scroll' Vase, Meiping, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period. Est: HK$ 25 – 35 million / US$ 3.2 – 4.5 million. © Sotheby's 2022
The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection. A Magnificent Ruby-Ground Yangcai 'Trigrams' Reticulated Vase, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong. Est: HK$ 60 – 120 million / US$ 7.6 – 15.3 million. © Sotheby's 2022
The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung. A Unique and Highly Important Moulded Blue and White Barbed 'Fish' Charger, Yuan Dynasty. Est: HK$ 30 – 50 million / US$ 3.8 – 6.4 million. © Sotheby's 2022

This October, Sotheby’s Hong Kong presents the most significant Chinese Works of Art sale series with the convergence of the finest private collections from the world’s greatest Chinese art collectors including Dr Wou Kiuan, Mr Joseph Lau and Sir Joseph Hotung. The star lot of this season is a Magnificent Ruby-Ground yangcai 'Trigrams' Reticulated Vase from the Qianlong period (Est: HK$ 60 – 120 million / US$ 7.6 – 15.3 million) from the Dr Wou Kiuan Collection Part II, a carefully curated sale presenting six masterpieces from the 18th century. The collection of Joseph Lau, comprising 11 imperial gems, occupies pride of place among the very finest ever assembled in the field. At the heart of Sir Joseph Hotung’s personal collection is an array of masterpieces which charts many of the peaks in China’s long history, from the Neolithic Period to the Qing dynasty. Adding to this season’s strong line-up of renowned private collections are a selection of Ming and Qing jades from the collection of Victor Shaw and a group of archaic artworks from an important Japanese collection.

"This Autumn sale series marks a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for collectors and enthusiasts of Chinese art. Very rarely will you see such a superlative line-up from the world’s most celebrated Chinese art collections. We will be offering fresh to market masterpieces in almost each and every field of Chinese art and this is possibly the most anticipated sale series Sotheby’s has ever hosted." Nicolas Chow. Chairman, Asia and Chairman, Chinese Works of Art.

"These illustrious private collections not only showcase the impeccable taste, vision and passion of this century’s most influential Chinese art collectors, but also offer a window to the extraordinary depth and breadth of Chinese art forms." Xibo Wang, Head of Department, Chinese Works of Art.

A Journey Through China’s History: The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection Part II

 Lot 3801. The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection. A Magnificent Ruby-Ground Yangcai 'Trigrams' Reticulated Vase, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795). H. 31 cm. Estimate: HK$ 60,000,000 – 120,000,000 / US$ 7,644,000 – 15,287,000. Lot sold: 177,463,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2022

of pear shape, with a revolving trumpet-shaped neck pivoting on a cylindrical inner vase, the globular body cut along a line of interlocking ruyi-heads and pierced with the eight trigrams, the bright ruby ground finely incised in sgraffiato with dense feather arabesques, reserved with stylised lotus flowers borne on curling foliage issuing additional florets and buds, the spreading foot encircled by a ruyi-band in red and blue against a vivid lemon-yellow ground with similar sgraffiato work, the waisted neck with interlinked ruyi and floral designs on a pale blue and yellow ground, flanked by two flat scroll handles enamelled in iron-red and gilt, the flaring mouth rim with leafy sprays on a pale green ground, the inner vase visible through the narrow openings, painted in underglaze-Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain. The Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912), London, 1951, pl. CVII, no. 1 and p. 71.
Rose Kerr et al, Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Camberley, 2011, cat. no. 154blue with lotus scrolls in early Ming style, the interior of the neck and the base enamelled in pale turquoise green, the base reserved with a six-character seal mark.

Provenance: Collection of Henry Brougham Loch, 1st Baron Loch of Drylaw (1827-1900), by repute.
Collection of Alfred Morrison (1821-97), Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, no. 328, probably since 1861.
Collection of the Rt. Hon. The Lord Margadale of Islay, T.D., J.P., D.L. (1906-96).
Christie's London, 18th October 1971, lot 56.
Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-97)
Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1971-present, coll. no. Q11.49.

Literature: Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain. The Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912), London, 1951, pl. CVII, no. 1 and p. 71.
Rose Kerr et al, Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Camberley, 2011, cat. no. 154

Heaven and Earth Intertwined
Regina Krahl

It would be hard to find a porcelain vessel that can better embody the artistry and aesthetics fostered by the Qianlong Emperor and the peak of craftsmanship at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. In its outstanding technical intricacy, combining reticulated, interlocking and revolving features, its auspicious design with Chinese symbolism and Western baroque features, and its rich and superbly balanced colour scheme and brocade-style ground, this ceramic work of art is of a sophistication that has never been surpassed. Even this most demanding of patrons, the connoisseur Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95), who was hard to please, could not have wished for more. Court archives show that this vase must have been made either in 1743 or immediately thereafter, at a period when the Emperor was in his prime and the imperial manufactories achieved their greatest triumphs.

It was only two years before, in the 6th year of Qianlong, 1741, that the Emperor had reprimanded Tang Ying (1682-1756), the most inventive and capable supervisor the imperial kilns ever had, for low quality and breakages in porcelains sent to the court. Since Tang was largely stationed elsewhere, in Huaian and later in Jiujiang, also in Jiangxi, to follow his other duties as customs official, a resident manager, Laoge, was appointed to directly supervise the work at Jingdezhen and to assure consistent high quality. This, however, was not all. The imperial reprimand must have raised serious alarms with Tang and his potters, who knew that they had to come up with something out of the ordinary to recover lost grace. According to Liao Pao Show, the seventh year of Qianlong, 1742, marks a turning point for yangcai ceramics, the exceptional porcelains made at Jingdezhen for the court, mainly between 1741 and 1744 (Liao Baoxiu, Huali cai ci: Qianlong yangcai/Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 39). These few years saw an unprecedented and unparalleled culmination of technical virtuosity in porcelain production.

By the end of the preceding Yongzheng period (1723-35), the manufactories had already explored such a vast spectrum of styles, designs and colours and reached such a level of technical refinement, that it must have seemed virtually impossible to venture beyond; so, the potters had to search far and wide for inspiration. Openwork had already been accomplished much earlier, for example, at the much coarser celadons of the Longquan kilns of Zhejiang province in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). This probably did not pose too many problems for Jingdezhen’s potters.

Pieces with moveable and interlocking parts were unheard of in ceramics, but existed in jade, where they also were very complicated to realize. Examples can be seen in the Guwantu (‘Pictures of antiques’), two handscrolls depicting works of art, probably from the imperial collection painted for the Yongzheng Emperor (see Regina Krahl, ‘Chinese Jade Before Qianlong’, in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, London, 2013, pp. 52 and 58, figs 8 a and b). To create such forms in porcelain and to fire them repeatedly at different temperatures, first for the porcelain itself, where it shrinks, and then again for the various colours, was a challenge never attempted before. Once it became possible to produce porcelains with detached, interlocking parts, it may have seemed like the natural next step to make these freely moveable and able to rotate. In the following year already, 1743, the potters were successful and the first examples were sent to the court. This delivery included one vase just like the present piece.

On the 21st day in the leap 4th month of the 8th year of Qianlong, 1743, Tang Ying submitted a memorial to the Emperor recording his presentation to the court of a total of nine jiazeng linglong (layered openwork) and jiaotai (interlocking) vases of innovative design, stating that he did not dare to create larger numbers, since they are so expensive to make; yet, he would later, if accepted, make pairs. The Emperor replied that he ought to make pairs for those that stand alone, but that indeed he should keep numbers low and only to submit them for special occasions.

For the 17th day of the 5th month of the same year, there is another record that Eunuchs Gao Yu and Hu Shijia, as proposed by Treasurer Bai Shixiu and Deputy Foreman Dazi, had presented a yangcai red-ground ‘brocade work’ [sgraffiato] reticulated vase with ‘heaven and earth intertwined’ design, for which the Emperor had ordered a fitted stand, which was completed on the 21st day of the same month. Two further pairs are recorded, one for the 30th day, 11th month, 10th year of Qianlong (1745), for which fitted huali wood stands were tailor-made and presented on the 21st day of the following month; the other was presented on the first day, 5th month, 11th year (1746) and fitted stands were submitted on the 18th day of the same month.

The Emperor’s reaction has not been passed on, but circumstantial evidence suggests that he must have been pleased. Not only did he ask for pairs to be made for the singles, in spite of their exaggerated costs, but also he ordered stands to be made as soon as the vases had arrived and asked for them to be kept together with other top-rated artefacts such as falangcai wares in the Qianqinggong, the main hall of the Inner Court in the Forbidden City.

1743 is also the year in which Tang Ying annotated a painted album of the porcelain-making process for the Emperor, who had asked for it (Peter Y.K. Lam, Chinese Ceramics from the Dawentang Collection, Hong Kong, 2019, vol. 2, pp. 270-313). The twenty illustrations and detailed explanations could have left the Emperor in no doubt about the complexity of ceramic manufacture; and he would have seen that the album dealt merely with the regular production that was done on a large scale and showed nothing of the individual treatment and exceptional working procedures reticulated, interlocking and revolving vases would have required. It was only for a few years that Tang Ying managed to get his potters to create such marvels. The level of craftsmanship they commanded and the amounts of manual labour and material they consumed – failures must have been considerable – were excessive even for an imperial workshop, so that even the Emperor advised moderation. It is not surprising that they remain among the rarest and priciest pieces of imperial porcelain today.

With the development of these vases, Tang Ying not only managed to present works to the court that were considered gui fu shen gong (‘demon labour and spirit work’); he also knew how to touch the Qianlong Emperor personally. Trigrams and their message in the Yijing (Book of Changes) appear to have carried important meaning for the Emperor who used the first of the Eight Trigrams, qian, consisting of three unbroken strokes and representing heaven, or the male principle, in his reign title and as such also on works of art and in his seals, together with dragons, long, homophone of the long in his title. In the archives, these vases are referred to as qiankun jiaotai, ‘heaven and earth intertwined’, with qian the first, kun the eighth trigram, and the two together signifying heaven and earth, or the male and female principles. For the Qianlong Emperor, such symbols of a harmonious universe must have felt like a gratifying comment on his own rule.

The inner tube which represents the actual body of the vase, is painted with underglaze-blue lotus scrolls in early Ming (1368-1644) style. A glimpse through the narrow openings in the outer wall thus seemingly offers a view into a distant past – a glorious imperial past, whose natural heirs the Manchu emperors claimed to be.

The strongly Western-oriented painted decoration on the outside of this vase contains a completely different message, but one that the Qianlong Emperor would have welcomed no less. “Nowhere was the multicultural nature of Qing rulership more evident than in the paintings, porcelains, and other objets d’art that were created for palace use and for presentation to officials and embassies. The use of material culture as an expression of the court’s cosmopolitan vision is exemplified in the activities of the Qianlong emperor” (Evelyn S. Rawski, The Last Emperors. A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998, p. 51).

Although the construction of Western-style palaces in the Yuanmingyuan summer resort had not yet begun, the court had received Western artefacts in many different media through the Jesuits who had been active at the court already in the Kangxi period (1662-1722). Most of these foreign objects, even scientific instruments, were decorated with the floral ornaments that were en vogue particularly in France at the time. Prototypes of the curly foliate scrolls around the lower part of the vase, which Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens calls ‘in European seventeenth-century art … omnipresent’, appear, for example in French tapestry and carpet design, but also in many other media (Michèle Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, ‘Notes on European Decorative Arts at the Chinese Court during the Kangxi Reign: Importations, Copies and Adaptations’, National Palace Museum Bulletin, vol. 45, October 2012, p. 7, figs 6 and 7a). Idealized eight-petalled blooms with pearl rings around the centre, not unlike the flower-heads in the pendent ruyi panels of this vase, can already be seen on a Kangxi-period brocade in the Palace Museum, Beijing (Kangxi, Empereur de Chine, 1662-1722. La cite interdite à Versailles, Musée national du château de Versailles, Paris, 2004, p. 10, no. 120). Not only the imaginary blooms and leaves and the geometric arrangement of the overall floral design are Western in origin. In parts of the decoration, distinct shading was introduced to create three-dimensionality, a Western painting device that was basically rejected by Chinese painters. On this vase, a veritable trompe-l’oeil effect has been achieved particularly with the rings suspended from ruyi motifs at the neck.

Tang Ying, who had worked at the palace in Beijing himself, was clearly aware of the latest trends in the capital and made sure that Jingdezhen’s porcelain painters adapted their repertoire. These used foreign models as inspiration, but turned them into their own independent, idiosyncratic style – a style that became one of the characteristics of yangcai porcelain.

There exists only one very similar vase, but not the exact pair to the present piece, formerly in the collections of Laurent Héliot and Jack Chia and now in a private Hong Kong collection, sold in these rooms, 17th May, 1988, lot 116 (fig. 1). That vase is very similar in shape, design and size, but has an additional raised rib below the neck, and the two show very minor differences in the painted decoration. One of these vases might represent the first piece delivered in 1743, the other may have been made as a pair to it, but later, after the Emperor had asked for this.

 An Imperial Ruby-Ground yangcai 'trigrams' Reticulated Vase, Seal Mark And Period Of Qianlong, Formerly In The Collections Of Laurent Héliot And Jack Chia, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17th May 1988, Lot 116.

A pair of much smaller yangcai vases (19.5 cm tall) of very similar overall form, construction and decoration but on a yellow ground is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. It is recorded in the palace archives of 1744. One of them was included in the Museum’s exhibition Qianlong huangdi de wenhua daye/Emperor Ch’ien-lung’s Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2002, cat. no. V-27; and again in the exhibition of yangcai wares, see Liao Pao Show, op.cit., cat. no. 73, where both are illustrated together, p. 272, no. 62 (figs 2 and 3). Liao explains the complex workmanship, structure and decoration techniques of these vases, which are composed of four sections: an inner vase, which is connected to the overhanging collar, and two detached parts for upper and lower sections of the outer walls. The inner vase is painted – like on the present piece – with underglaze-blue lotus. She writes “Ingenious designs such as the one in the example here were made to laud the prosperity and peace of the empire during the height of the Ch’ien-lung [Qianlong] reign”.

fig. 2. An Imperial Yellow-Ground Yangcai 'Trigrams' Reticulated Vase, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong, Made in the 9th year of the Qianlong Reign (1744), Qing Court Collection, Taipei Palace Museum.

fig. 3. Catalog Of The Special Exhibition Of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-Cheng And Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain Ware From The Ch'ing Dynasty In The National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, Cover.

An immediate predecessor of this vase can be seen in a yangcai wall vase without any openwork, recorded to have been made in the 6th year of Qianlong, 1741, which is of similar pear-shaped form and decorated with similar Western-style flower scrolls on a ruby ground, but its handles continue further down the body (fig. 4). This had to be modified for the present shape where the neck is constructed as a separate part; see Liao Baoxiu [Liao Pao Show], Dian ya fu li. Gugong cang ci [Elegant and sumptious. Porcelains collected by the Palace], National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, p. 163, fig. 30.

fig. 4. An Imperial Ruby-Ground yangcai 'floral Scroll' Vase, Seal Mark And Period Of Qianlong, Qing Court Collection, Taipei Palace Museum.

The present vase has one of the most illustrious provenances for Chinese works of art, as it comes from the ‘Fonthill heirlooms’ of Alfred Morrison (1821-1897) of Fonthill House in Wiltshire in the southwest of England (fig. 5). Morrison’s outstanding collection comprised not only superb Chinese imperial works of art but also Western historical documents, paintings, sculptures and other works. In 1861, he bought a substantial group of Chinese porcelains and enamel wares from Baron Loch of Drylaw (1827-1900), to which this vase may have belonged, but he had added Chinese porcelains to his collection already prior to this major purchase and continued to do so afterwards. Dr Wou Kiuan purchased the vase at Christie’s sale of the Morrison collection in 1971, after which it remained in the Wou family for over half a century.

fig. 5. Unknown Artist, Old House at Fonthill, Wiltshire, between 1800 And 1810, Detail, Watercolor and Graphite on Medium, Slightly Textured, Cream Wove Paper, Yale Center For British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1975.2.25.

Another highlight also endowed with the Fonthill provenance is a magnificent pair of yangcai ‘butterfly’ vases superbly enamelled on a bright pink ground in a manner imbued with Western influences and fired to perfection.

Lot 3803. The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection. A magnificent pair of yangcai ‘butterfly’ vases, Seal Marks and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795). H. 47 cm. Estimate: HK$ 40,000,000 – 60,000,000 / US$ 5,096,000 – 7,644,000. Unsold. © Sotheby's 2022

each of baluster shape with a tall waisted neck and an incurving lip, the body covered almost entirely in an even powdery bright pink enamel, scattered with a fanciful variety of butterflies and moths in flight among a multitude of flowers, including peonies, magnolia sprays, peach blossoms, prunus branches, lotus flowers, chrysanthemums, orchids and bamboo, the lower part gently tapered and encircled by lappets enclosing a small floret suspending beads and a chime on a café-au-lait ground, the shoulder decorated with arabesque design in blue enamel between a raised gilt band and a turquoise-and-red  ruyi- collar, the lips with an additional  ruyi-band between gilt lines, the interior and the base covered in a pale turquoise colour, reserved on the base with a six-character seal mark in iron-red.

Provenance: Collection of Lord Loch of Drylaw (1827-1900), by repute.
Collection of Alfred Morrison (1821-17), Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, no. 552.
Collection of the Rt. Hon. The Lord Margadale of Islay, T.D., J.P., D.L. (1906-96).
Christie's London, 31st May 1965, lot 107.
Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-97).
Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968-present, coll. no. Q7.34

Literature: Rose Kerr et al, Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Camberley, 2011, cover and cat. no. 153.
Regina Krahl, ed., China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members, London, 2016, cat. no. 207 (one vase).
Mary Redfern, 'Chinese Without Dragons. An Exhibition Presented by the Oriental Ceramic Society', Arts of Asia, November-December 2016, p. 162, fig. 11 (one vase).

Exhibited: China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members , The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 2016.

 Note: This majestic, superbly enamelled pair of vases, with its sumptuous depiction of butterflies and flowers in radiant colours on a rarely used bright pink ground, is archetypical of yangcai porcelains that were produced for a very short period by the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen for the Qianlong Emperor. They are characterized by the phenomenal opulence of their decoration as well as the rich spectrum of their enamels and were amongst the most prized types of porcelain at the Qing court. Yangcaivases were made in very small quantities altogether and of each design, usually only a single piece or a pair was made. It is exceedingly rare to find a matching pair of such vases to have survived and to remain united outside the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the present pieces are among the largest specimens preserved.

The term yangcai ('foreign colours') was first mentioned in the final year of the Yongzheng reign (1735) by the renowned supervisor of the Jingdezhen imperial workshops Tang Ying (1682-1756). In his work Tao wu xu lue bei ji [ Records of narrated summaries of porcelain matters], Tang states ' Yangcai vessels [are made with the use of] an enamelling technique new in this reign, borrowing from Western painting methods. [Amongst the paintings of] figures, landscapes, flowers and plumage, there are none that are not fine and enthralling'. About the application of the yangcai palette, Tang writes in his other work Tao ye tuce[Illustrated Album of Pottery], written in the 8th year of the Qianlong reign (1743), that 'round, white-bodied vessels painted in multiple colours and in a style imitating the West are therefore called yangcai . [We] need to select experienced master painters; finely grind and properly mix each type of colour; do trials by painting, colouring and firing slabs of white porcelain; thoroughly understand the properties of the colours and firing, before we can paint from coarse work to fine, and polish the skills from constant practice; a good eye, attentive mind, and exact hand are required to attain excellence' (Liao Pao Show, Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung Reign , National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 14) .

Displaying a great variety of butterflies in flight among a multitude of flowers, including peonies, magnolia sprays, peach blossoms, prunus branches, lotus flowers, chrysanthemums, orchids and bamboo, the naturalistic design may have been inspired by European publications, such as the scientific illustrations of the German-born Swiss naturalist and botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), who studied plants and animals, and in particular butterflies, and published detailed drawings of them – a work that her daughters continued after her death. See a famous book she first published in 1705 on insects in Surinam, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surnamensium , with meticulous depictions of butterflies among flowers and fruits ( fig. 1 ).

Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surnamensium, Amsterdam, 1705, Pl. 9., Royal Collection, RCIN 1085787.

Butterflies appeared occasionally on porcelains already much earlier, at least since the Yongle reign (1403-24) of the previous dynasty, as evidenced by a blue-and-white yuhuchun ping (pear-shaped bottle vase), depicting on each side a butterfly hovering above a day lily, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei ( accession no. gu-ci-14975 ). By the Chenghua reign (1465-87), the design began to be painted in colours, as can be seen on some small doucai jars with butterflies between flower sprays, such as one from the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and now in the British Museum, London ( accession no. PDF.797). It was not until the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), with the introduction of new palettes and styles brought over from Europe, that the motif began to be rendered in a naturalistic manner. See one of the 'butterfly bowls' of Yongzheng (1723-35) mark and period, painted in the famille rose palette with medallions formed by butterflies and flowers, preserved also in the British Museum, London ( accession no. 1936,0413.26 ). During the Qianlong reign, the motif became more popular . Butterflies and flowers very similar to those on the present vase can be seen, for example, on handled double-gourd vases, such as one formerly in the Yuen Family Collection, included in Selected Treasures of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990-1, cat. no. 166. 

Yuhuchun vase with flower and butterfly decoration in underglaze blue, Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1403-1424), National Palace Museum, Taipei, accession no. gu-ci-14975.

Combinations of butterflies and flowers are not only pleasing motifs, but also replete with meaning, often forming auspicious rebuses to convey happiness, long life, riches, merit and other good wishes. While the Chinese pronunciation for butterfly ' die ' is homophonous with the word ' die ' meaning to 'duplicate', it can be used to double the auspicious wishes expressed by other designs.

Of the present design, a very similar single vase is known, of similar size, differing in details of the decoration and with a graviata ground, also from the collections of Lord Loch of Drylaw and Alfred Morrison, later in the collection of JT and Ping Y. Tai, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain: The Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1912) , London, 1951, pl. CVI, fig. 2, sold at Christie's London, 18th October 1971, lot 65 and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd Dec 2008, lot 2388. None of the many yangcai vases preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is of comparable size. The Palace Museum, Beijing, owns another yangcai vase painted with similar designs in a similar colour scheme, but of square baluster form, with a pair of archaistic dragon handles ( accession no. gu-154715 ). This bright pink enamel was otherwise rarely used as a ground colour on yangcai porcelains. 

Related butterfly and flower designs can also be found on two pairs of yangcai miniature vases with ruby-coloured ground, one in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession nos gu-ci-7373 and gu-ci-7374 ), illustrated in Liao Pao Show 2008, op.cit. , cat. no. 22 and p. 279, fig. 116; the other in the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva ( accession no. CB.CC.1930.626 ), illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection , vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pls 236-7. Liao suggests that these four vases are the two pairs which, according to the Zaobanchu Huojidang(Archives of the Imperial Workshops), were ordered to be sent to the Qianqinggong, the Palace of Heavenly Purity, one of the main palace buildings in the Forbidden City, Beijing, in the 6th and 7th years of the Qianlong reign (1741 and 1742 ).

Butterflies and flowers are also seen, in other combinations, on a ruby-ground yangcai vase from the collection of George Salting in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ( accession no. C.1461-1910 ), included in the exhibition China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795 , Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005-6, cat. no. 219; and on a blue-ground piece in the Palace Museum, Beijing ( accession no. gu-154599 ), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration , Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 30.

Gems of Imperial Porcelain from the Private Collection of Joseph Lau Part II

The name Joseph Lau resonates with collectors around the globe and it is one that stands for excellence. Chinese art stands at the genesis of Joseph Lau’s adventure with art and it is on Chinese art that he cut his exacting eye before expanding his horizons. Lau assembled one of the finest collections of Chinese porcelain ever, articulated around masterpieces, each representative of the best of a certain period and type, and handpicked from the most prestigious collections.

This season’s offerings include a very fine blue and white porcelain dating from the Yongle period in the early 15th century, the pinnacle of underglaze-blue decorated wares and a period much celebrated for imperial patronage in the arts.

Lot 3507.  The Private Collection of Joseph Lau. A Fine Blue and White 'Lotus Scroll' Vase, Meiping, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425). H. 31.4 cm. Estimate: HK$ 25,000,000 – 35,000,000 / US$ 3,185,000 – 4,459,000. Lot sold: 24,575,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2022

superbly and elegantly potted with a full rounded shoulder rising at a gently flaring angle from the unglazed base and surmounted by a short waisted neck, skilfully painted in shades of cobalt blue with a wide frieze of lotus scrolls, the flowers rendered set in scene by a network of scrolling steams arranged in curvilinear patterns, between two bands encircling the shoulder and lower body, the first delicately detailed with fruiting sprays of pomegranate, lychee, peach, and crab apple, and the other enclosing flowering sprays of pomegranate, peony, chrysanthemum and camellia.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 15th/16th November 1988, lot 122.

Literature: Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 62.

Exhibited: Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981-82.

For Emperor, Sultan and Shah
Regina Krahl

A ‘lotus meiping’ is a type of vessel made at Jingdezhen virtually for as long as the kilns made blue-and-white porcelain; but it is the version of the Yongle period (1403-1424), where form and decoration had undergone critical scrutiny and been optimized through court intervention, that became a classic. This early Ming (1368-1644) period has in later periods always been considered the pinnacle of blue-and-white production.

Yongle meiping stand out through their harmonious proportions, which imperial designers had subtly recast compared to the Yuan (1279-1368) and Hongwu (1368-1398) prototypes: The profile became more mellow, curving in a fluid, unbroken line from the narrow waisted neck over the well-rounded shoulder, narrowing down in a gentle curve before flaring again very slightly towards a fairly narrow base. This silhouette makes the voluminous vessel appear elegant, while at the same time creating a satisfactory optical balance and sound physical stability. Yongle lotus scrolls were also refashioned, with blooms and leaves now being accentuated with painted detail, and flowers effectively set in scene by a network of scrolling stems, arranged in complex curvilinear patterns. The peculiarity of this early cobalt painting to form minute dots along the painted brush lines, also known as ‘heaping and piling’, was in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) considered such a charming and indicative characteristic of the best blue-and-white ever made, that it was imitated by the deliberately painting of tiny dots onto motifs in early Ming style, since at that time, the cobalt solution no longer provoked this effect fortuitously (fig. 1). The ‘heaping and piling’ also often caused less desirable dark spots to burn through the glaze surface, but on the present vase, the complete design has retained its beautiful blue colour.

fig. 1. A Blue And White 'Lotus Scroll' Vase, hu, Mark And Period Of Yongzheng, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2010, Lot 1875. © Sotheby's 2022

Vases of this type appear to have been universally approved of and are preserved in the palace museums in Beijing and Taipei as well as in the Middle Eastern royal collections of the Ottoman Sultans, still remaining in Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, and of the Safavid Shahs, as preserved in the Ardabil Shrine in Iran. In China, meiping were generally used as storage vessels for wine and some are retaining a cover. In the Ming dynasty, they also seem to have played an important role in imperial burials, where different numbers were apparently granted according to rank. Kong Fanzhi writes (Wenwu, 1985, no. 12, pp. 90-92) that four blue-and-white meiping were reserved for an Emperor's tomb, two meiping, either both blue-and-white or one blue-and-white and one white, for the tomb of an Empress or Dowager Empress, and a single blue-and-white vase for the tomb of a Prince or Princess. Yet, these formulae do not seem to have been strictly adhered to but, whenever possible, exceeded. Four covered blue-and-white meiping were excavated, for example, from the tomb of Liang Zhuangwang, a grandson of the Yongle Emperor, and his wife, who were buried exceptionally lavishly, probably above their station, with massive amounts of gold, silver, jade and jewels.

Liang Zhuangwang died in 1441, his wife in 1451, and their joint mausoleum contained two meiping painted with lotus scrolls between a lingzhi scroll above and petal panels below, and two with lotus scrolls between petal panel borders; one of these had been placed in the tomb’s front room and three in a niche in the back chamber (Liang Zhu, ed., Liang Zhuang wang mu/Mausoleum of Prince Liang Zhuangwang, Beijing, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 74-6, figs 91-3; and vol. 2, pls 9:1, 14 and 72-9). Although many items in the tomb dated from the Yongle period, the meiping were clearly no longer produced under Yongle imperial supervision. Just a few decades later, much of the former excellence had already been lost: the neck is lacking the subtle waisted curve seen on the present vase; the lingzhi-decorated pair in particular has a less generous profile; lotus petals and leaves are rendered in solid colour without any details; and the cobalt blue is darker and much less clear.

The National Palace Museum, Taipei, holds a slightly larger (34.5 cm) Yongle meiping of the present design, which was included in the exhibition Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, no. 12; a much smaller (24.9 cm) example is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, pl. 16. In both catalogues, these vases are shown next to smaller Yongle meiping with a different lotus design, with blooms, buds and leaves depicted in a more naturalistic fashion, together with other water weeds, see Taipei, op.cit., no. 13 and Geng, op.cit., pl. 17.

The lotus as depicted on the present vase, with its fanciful curled pointed leaves, is considered as Buddhist lotus, emphasizing its symbolic significance as support of Buddhist deities and representation of purity – rising immaculately clean out of muddy waters – over its sheer aesthetic aspect as embellishment of south China’s scenic beauty. Similar stylized lotus scrolls are in the Yongle period also seen on the mandorla of Buddhist figures depicted in gilt bronze or silk embroidery, on embroidered pendants made to adorn Buddhist figures, on lacquer sutra covers, and in other Buddhist contexts; see James C.Y. Watt and Denise Patry Leidy, Defining Yongle. Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, pls 22, 24, 34, 35.

Vases of this design were probably among the diplomatic gifts transported by the eunuch Zheng He (1371–1433), under whose command vast fleets undertook seven maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1433 to ports all over Asia and as far as East Africa, exchanging presents and tributes; or they may have been exchanged over land by Timurid missions that arrived at the Yongle court from Samarkand and Herat, or the Chinese return embassies to the Timurid empire, led by the court official Chen Cheng (1365–1457). They entered the two important historic porcelain collections in the Middle East, in Iran and Turkey, the former probably through direct exchange, the latter indirectly through later conquests or purchases: a much larger example (41 cm) from the Ardabil Shrine collection in Iran is illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pl. 51, no. 29.409, perhaps the vase illustrated as remaining in the Shrine after the bulk of the collection had been transferred to the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, in T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, Hong Kong, 1981, vol. 3, p. 353; a vase of the same size and a slightly larger one are recorded in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, vol. 2, no. 623.

Other meiping of this design and of similar size are in the British Museum, London, from the Sir Percival David Collection, included in Margaret Medley, Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 104; and in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 630. Only three such meiping appear to have been offered at auction over the last eighty years or so: one from the collection of Major Lindsay F. Hay in our London rooms, 25th June 1946, lot 61; another, illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, no. 740, p. 246, at Christie's New York, 20th September 2002, lot 313, and in our New York rooms, 20th March 2007, lot 750; the third in our London rooms, 17th November 1999, lot 744.

A superb and rare early Ming blue and white vase, (meiping) Ming dynasty, Yongle period. Sold at Sotheby's New York, 20 March 2007, lot 750. © Sotheby's 2022

 Lot 3505. The Private Collection of Joseph Lau. A fine and outstanding doucai and famille-rose 'sanduo' moonflask, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795). H. 31.3 cm. Estimate: HK$ 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 / US$ 2,548,000 – 3,822,000. Unsold. © Sotheby's 2022

the well-potted rounded body superbly painted on each side in the doucai palette accented with famille-rose highlights, rendered with a large medallion formed with the sanduo, comprising a pale yellow bough bearing a two ripe peaches and a third fruit below depicted in raspberry-red shading to a pale greenish-yellow with scattered raspberry markings, a brown pomegranate branch bearing three fruit in soft shades of purple and yellow, the largest with burst skin to reveal the bright purple seeds inside, and with four finger-citron rendered in cobalt-blue beneath the bright yellow enamel, the various boughs interlaced and wreathed by curling foliage, the sides with a swooping iron-red bat suspending a leafy scroll extending to enclose a wan emblem and shou character above a further bat supporting a beribboned and tasselled chime, the cylindrical neck with a bat on each side suspending scrolling foliage and flanked by a pair of handles rendered in the the form of sinuous dragons, all between pendent ruyi heads and a leafy scroll encircling the rim and foot, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th November 1982, lot 204.
Christie's Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 525.
The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong.

Literature: Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding. Qingdai bufen [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain. Qing section], Taipei, 1984, pl. 165.
Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 478.
Yeh Pei-Lan, Beauty of Ceramics. Gems of the Doucai, Taipei, 1993, pl. 122.
The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 176.

Note: Rarely have the doucai and fencai (famille rose) palettes been as successfully combined as on this impressive moonflask, which celebrates the creative breadth of porcelain production under the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95) with its brilliant colour palette. Only one pair of such vases appear to have been produced.

 The doucai painting style, with its delicate drawing in fine blue outlines and its colouration in polychrome washes, was the archetypal style of decoration in the Chenghua reign (1465-87), when the colours were still limited to a few bright shades. It was only by the end of the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) that the fencai palette with its wide range of tones and subtle pastel tints became available. The first trials in combining the two colour schemes began in the Yongzheng period (1723-35), but were generally restricted to small touches of fencai enamels included among typical doucai designs.

This moonflask represents a very ambitious combination of the two colour schemes, since the full famille rose enamel palette is here used with the underglaze-blue outlines that are characteristic of doucai. Although aesthetically most satisfactory and striking, the marriage of these two painting techniques remained rare. Featured by Geng Baocang in his famous ceramic book Ming Qing ciqi jianding / Appraisal of Ming and Qing Porcelains, Hong Kong, 1993, fig. 478, this vase is used as an exemplar of the remarkable graphic effect that can be found on doucai wares of the Qianlong reign. An achievement of the Qianlong period, the full incorporation of the doucai and famille rose palettes was, as Geng states, usually applied only to the depiction of flowers and clothes to enhance the overall visual effect. He also notes that this special style continued to be appreciated in the century thereafter, as demonstrated by some of the desk items produced at the imperial kiln of the Daoguang reign (1821-50).

Only one other vessel of this design appears to be recorded, presumably the pair to this flask, formerly in the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in these rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 87, illustrated in Sotheby's Hong Kong, Twenty Years: 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 239, and included in the Special Exhibition. Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 342.

The design of this piece is known from a closely related moonflask with a wider foot, and handles in the form of bats, which is painted in doucai only, from the collection of Iver Munthe Daae, now in the collection of the National Museum, Oslo (accession no. OK-03389), and included in the exhibition Daae Samlingen, Kunstindustrimuseet i Oslo, Oslo, 1989-90, catalogue p. 38. Thanks to the colours of the famille rose palette, the fruits on the present moonflask that are delicately shaded in layered tones of pink, purple, yellow and lime-green, are represented much more naturalistically compared with those on the Oslo vessel. The skin of the peaches is particularly sensitively painted in a range of gradations and the seeds of the pomegranates are carefully rendered as if reflecting light – effects not available with the doucai palette.

The motif on these flasks is known as sanduo, literally ‘three plenties’ or ‘three abundances’. The idea originates from the main Daoist text, Zhuangzi, of the Warring States period (475-211BC), where in the chapter on Heaven and Earth the philosopher describes the story of the sage Yao visiting a place called Hua, whose local official gives Yao three blessings: ‘May the sage live long’, ‘May the sage become rich’, ‘May the sage have many sons’. The official added that ‘long life, riches, and many sons are what men wish for’. At least from the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), these three blessings have been symbolically rendered by groups of the three fruits peach, Buddha’s Hand citron and pomegranate. In China, peaches have a long history of being associated with longevity and immortality. The Buddha’s Hand citron (fo shou) consists almost entirely of rind and is therefore not edible, but is used as a medicinal plant. On account of its intense fragrance and evocative form, resembling a hand with fingers bent to form a mudra, it is a popular offering on altars of temples and local shrines. The character fo is also a pun for ‘riches’ (fu) and ‘blessings' (fu), making this fruit highly auspicious. The pomegranate, usually depicted split open and revealing its multiple seeds, represents the wish for many offspring.

Related in its colour scheme and motif, but different in form, is a meiping painted in both doucai and famille rose colours, depicting eight fruiting sprays of pomegranate, peach, finger-citron, cherry, longan, loquat, grape and lychee but in a more dispersed manner, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2007, lot 513.

The shape of the present flask inevitably calls to mind the moonflasks of the early Ming (1368-1644) reigns of Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande (1426-35), the greatest period for the production of blue-and-white porcelain. These Ming dynasty moonflasks began to be copied on a larger scale in the Yongzheng reign, when the whole repertoire of Yongle forms was reproduced. The Yongzheng versions generally follow the Ming shapes rather closely, either with a flat base and no foot, or a garlic-head mouth, while in the present version the shape has been modified. In the Qianlong reign the potters of the imperial kilns appear to have been more interested in diversifying handle shapes than in details of the vessels' silhouette, and animal, bird and plant forms, often archaistic in style, were created. The present handle shape can be traced back to the Yongzheng reign, but at that time it represented a great exception, as otherwise at that time handles were far simpler, generally of plain loop or scroll form, or were lacking altogether.

Hotung: The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung