A VERY RARE DOUCAI BOWL AND COVER
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(Set Currency)

HK$2,000,000 - HK$3,000,000
• ($258,847 - $388,270)

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Sale 2811
The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
31 May 2010
Hong Kong Buy Catalog

A VERY RARE DOUCAI BOWL AND COVER
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE-CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The bowl finely potted with a sharp angled profile above the ring foot, enhanced by a floral band below two bow-strings defined by underglaze-blue borders, rising to flaring sides with a gently everted mouth rim, the exterior delicately painted with iron-red, yellow and green enamels of soft tone to depict butterflies and insects among flowers and ornamental rockwork, the shallow domed cover decorated with the same scene and surmounted by a finial moulded in reticulation as an archaistic phoenix, the nianhao inscribed on the underside of the cover and within double-circles on the interior of the bowl
7 5/8 in. (19.3 cm.) diam.

清雍正 鬥彩花卉草蟲紋天雞鈕合盌 雙圈三行六字楷書款

盌撇口，曲腹，折底，圈足。通體鬥彩繪花卉草蟲圖案。有蓋，蓋頂飾青釉天雞鈕，蓋沿大與盌口，蓋面飾花蝶紋，邊輔以洞石，蓋內青花書「大清雍正年製」三行六字楷書款。上腹繪洞石花蝶紋，兩道弦紋下繪串枝牡丹六朵，盌內心底青花雙圈內書「大清雍正年製」三行六字楷書款。

雍正朝新創的鬥彩瓷器造型很豐富，此器便是其中一例。其瓷質瑩潤，端莊典雅，畫意生動，花卉嬌艷，昆蟲蝴蝶栩栩如生，生氣盎然。此器蓋內及盌內均落官盌年款，甚為珍貴。

藝術品市場上所見完整帶蓋的除此之外隻有一件，2000年4月30日於袁氏珍藏瓷器專拍中拍出，拍品592號。
北京故宮博物院藏一件相同的蓋盌，見香港商務印書館出版北京故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集《五彩‧鬥彩》圖版222。

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTOR

One of the achievements for which the famous Imperial kiln director, Tang Ying, is celebrated is his success in imitating ancient wares. This imitation took many forms, and one of them was the adoption of earlier shapes, that were then decorated with designs which would not have been used in the early period. One such example is the current covered bowl.
The shape of this bowl was popular in the early 15th century, when the cover was topped by a boss-like finial. Such bowls were usually decorated in underglaze-blue, sometimes with the addition of underglaze copper-red or overglaze iron-red. Almost without exception they were decorated with dragons and waves. The Yongzheng bowl has a completely different theme for its decoration, has a more subtantial and elaborate finial on the cover, and has its raised bands slightly lower down the vessel. This latter change is undoubtedly to allow a wider band offering more scope for decoration.

The decoration on this bowl is a combination of old and new. The doucai technique had been popular in the Chenghua reign of the 15th century, but the style in which is painted on this bowl is the new, more delicate and more detailed style developed in the late Kangxi and early Yongzheng reigns. The reign mark also points to an early date of manufacture in the Yongzheng period, but the overall scheme and use of space on the bowl is in keeping with that developed in the Yongzheng period, but the inclusion of amusing ladybirds recalls those seen on famille verte porcelains in the Kangxi reign. Compare also the painting style of the butterflies to a Kangxi dish in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Chugoku Toji Zhenshu, vol. 21, no. 64, and the reeds on a period bowl in the same collection, illustrated loc. cit., no. 74. This is very rare bowl, which provides wonderful insights into the development of styles in Chinese porcelain.

For nearly identical bowls with covers see an example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 200, pl. 29; from the W. G. Gulland Bequest, illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, col. pl. 62; and from the K. R. Malcolm collection, included in the London O.C.S. Exhibition, The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1964, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 199, and later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, Important Qing Porcelain from the Yuen Family collection, The Imperial Sale, 30 April 2000, lot 592.

• Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art

• 18th Century
• flowers & plants
• All other categories of objects
• bowls
• porcelain
• China
• Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

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