A large and brilliantly enamelled hexagonal doucai jardinière, Mark and period of Kangxi. Estimate 3,000,000 — 5,000,000 HKD. Unsold. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

sturdily potted with flared sides rising from a splayed galleried foot to a wide everted rim, the rim neatly divided into four bracket foliations alternating with smaller lobes, the exterior delicately enamelled with six scenes depicting Daoist immortals engaging in various pursuits, including one panel with an immortal riding a water buffalo and with four attendants nearby, another with two immortals next to a crane in a tranquil rural setting, another with four immortals bearing various tributes, including a double-gourd, a lingzhi branch, and crossing tempestuous waters with cloud wisps surrounding them, the flat rim decorated in multi-coloured enamels with eight stylised shou characters against a floral diapered ground, the rim encircled by a band of ruyi heads against a floral diapered ground, the base pierced with apertures for drainage, inscribed with a six-character reign mark under the rim on one long side; 59.3 cm., 23 3/8  in.

Notes: The present piece is striking for its delicately painted motif of immortals in the doucai palette and belongs to a distinct group of sturdily potted Kangxi mark and period jardinières of hexagonal from. Peter Y.K. Lam, in ‘Lang Tingji and the Porcelain of the Late Kangxi Period’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 68, 2003-2004, p. 44, suggests that jardinières of this type were produced in the latter years of the Kangxi reign, possibly commissioned for the Emperor’s 70th birthday, which would have occurred in 1723. 

A jardinière of this form and related design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 192; a pair was sold in our London rooms, 10th July 1979, lot 175; a single example, but painted with female immortals and modelled with a facetted rim, from the Jie Rui Tang collection, illustrated in Michael Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, Qing Porcelain, London, 1987, p. 58, fig. 62, and included in the exhibition Embracing Classic Chinese Culture, Sotheby’s, New York, 2014, cat. no. 25, was sold at Christie’s London, 15th May 2007, lot 282. See also a jardinière of this form and design, but standing on bracket feet, sold at Christie’s New York, 16th September 2011, lot 1549; and a pair of octagonal jardinières painted with immortals, from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September 2000, lot 358.

Jardinières of related form and design, are also known painted in the wucai palette or in underglaze blue, such as a piece in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition Possessing the Past, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1996, p. 505, pl. 289, another sold in our New York rooms, 2nd December 1967, lot 92; and two blue and white examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing, the first of slightly smaller size, illustrated in Chen Runmin, Qing Shunzhi Kangxi chao qinghua ci[Imperial blue and white porcelain of the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns of the Qing dynasty], Beijing, 2005, pl. 339, the second, lacking the reign mark, published in The Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Ceramics, vol. 21, Shunzhi and Kangxi Periods of Qing Dynasty (I), Beijing, 2013, pl. 168.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong, 07 avr. 2015