Lot 3001. A rare doucai and iron-red floral vase seal, Mark and period of Qianlong  (1736-1795); 14 cm., 5 1/2  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,200,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's

originally a bottle vase, now with a cut-down neck, the bulbous body supported on a short slightly splayed foot, beautifully painted in shades of iron red around the exterior with two varieties of lotus wreathed by feathery scrolls sprouting attendant flowers and buds, below a collar of pale green pendent ruyienclosing leafy tassels at the shoulder and above a border of upright lappets with ruyi tips at the base, each detailed in yellow, iron red, dark blue, two tones of green, and gold, all between bands of alternating florets and dots reserved on a subtly shaded iron-red sgraffiato ground encircling the rim and foot, the base glazed in pale turquoise and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark within a square panel reserved in white.

Provenance: Acquired at auction in the Netherlands during the 1980's (by repute). 

Note: The iron-red painted lotus scroll decoration on the present piece is especially attractive and unusual. The painting style is reminiscent of that found on slightly earlier, Yongzheng period, bowls boldly decorated on the exterior in grisailleenamel with a continuous dense floral scroll in a similar manner. For example, see one sold in these rooms, 29th November 1978, lot 343, and later included in the exhibition Chinese Antiquities from the Brian S. McElney Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 102.

The lotus scroll decoration is inspired by famille-rose designs seen on contemporaneous vases, for example, see a Qianlong mark and period bottle vase painted with interlocking sprays of flowers over a yellow-ground, from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 111.  

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Hong Kong, 08 avr. 2013