A  superb and extremely rare 'famille-rose' yellow-ground 'cranes' moonflask. Seal mark and period of Qianlong

of finely potted flattened globular form resting on a splayed foot, superbly painted in bright 'famille-rose' enamels with a flock of four cranes perched upon a large gnarled pine tree intertwined with curling tendrils of small purple blossoms, some cranes preening themselves, while others sing and another in mid-flight, all enclosed within a subtly moulded lobed panel in gilt, further surrounded by a frieze of feathery floral scrolls in iron-red against a bright turquoise ground, the reverse similarly decorated with a further flock of four cranes, all reserved against a bright yellow ground filled with leafy lotus scrolls, the waisted neck elegantly flanked by a pair of handles decorated with lotus scrolls on a finely incised blue enamel sgraffiato ground terminating in moulded ruyi heads, all between bands of ruyi heads below the rim and around the foot, the mouth rim gilt, the interior and base glazed turquoise, the four-character mark inscribed on the base in blue enamel within a double-square.

22.5 cm., 8 7/8 in. - Estimate : 12,000,000—15,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE : A Private English Collection.

NOTE : No other moonflask of this form, decoration or colour scheme appears to be recorded, and it is extremely rare to find any Qianlong vessel with this kind of reign mark. Wheras the classic shape, lively colour scheme, auspicious painted design and turquoise interior and base are all archetypal features of Qianlong imperial porcelain, it is highly unusual to find a blue enamel four-character seal mark on such wares instead of an underglaze blue or iron-red six-character mark. While the latter were commonly applied at the imperial porcelain workshops at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, blue-enamel marks were typically used at the palace workshops in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The four-character seal mark in blue enamel on a turquoise ground is exceedingly rare but it appears again on a vase from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, decorated with multi-coloured scrolls on a ground of golden scrolling fronds, reminiscent of the formal decorative borders found on the present moonflask, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 34, together with another vase of similar design but different shape, which bears the mark in black enamel, pl. 33.

Compare also the exquisite Bernat brushpot, sold in these rooms on 15 November 1988, lot 36 and again on 9 October 2007, lot 1213, which is decorated with a narrative figure scene against a white ground, and inscribed with a six-character blue enamel mark on a turquoise ground.

The sensitively detailed feathers of the cranes and the meticulously rendered pine trees can be found on a related brushpot with a continuous scene of cranes among pine trees framed by faux-bois borders in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated ibid. pl.145. Cranes and pine trees represent the wish for a long life and are commonly used as a birthday motif. This auspicious decoration is suitable for a single person as well as a couple.

For examples of Qianlong mark and period famille-rose enamelled moonflasks see one of similar size and painted with a medallion of Buddhist emblems, sold in these rooms, 23rd May 1978, lot 166; a flask of circular body with a pierced rectangular base and short cylindrical neck flanked by openwork archaistic dragon handles and painted with flowers and birds in the famille-rose palette sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th April 1996, lot 51; and another of the same form but decorated with the design of children at play in round panels on a turquoise ground, published in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 35. Compare also an example decorated with a hundred boys in dragon boating scenes, but with archaistic scroll handles and no foot, sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 2821.

Qianlong moonflasks of closely related form are better known with underglaze-blue decoration of peach branches within the peach-shaped panels and surrounding lotus scrolls; see a yellow-ground and underglaze-blue flask sold in our New York rooms, 14th November 2001, lot 120; a blue-and-white version from the Wah Kwong collection, included in the exhibition Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 66; and another pair illustrated in Ma Xiguai, Blue and White Porcelain, Taipei, 1993, pl. 142.

In form this flask is an adaptation of much earlier foreign pilgrim bottles in metal which became the inspiration for ceramic replicas. The shape of Qing moonflasks largely derived from Ming prototypes and the present piece is a variation of a form introduced in the early 15th century; for example see a Yongle blue-and-white flask painted with an eight-petalled rosette in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red. Elegant Decoration on Porcelain of Yuan, Ming and Qing, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 56; and another in the Percival David Foundation, included in Stacy Pierson, Blue and White for China. Porcelain Treasures in the Percival David Collection, London, 2004, pl. 19

Sotheby's. Legacies of Imperial Power: Treasures from the Imperial Collection. 08 Oct 08. Hong Kong - www.sothebys.com