Page 124 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

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PROPERTY FROM A HONG KONG PRIVATE Flasks of this unusual lobed form are rare
FAMILY COLLECTION and appear to have been an innovation of the
Yongzheng reign. The Emperor is celebrated
A LARGE AND RARE BLUE for his refined taste and passion for classic
AND WHITE LOBED ‘MAGPIE’ porcelains of the early Ming dynasty, which were
MOONFLASK often used as models for inspiration. The motif
SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF of birds on flowering and fruiting branches was
YONGZHENG popular in this period and was inspired by after
early Ming prototypes, which were in turn painted
robustly potted with a flattened quatrefoil body after the popular bird and flower paintings of the
rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck Song dynasty. This attractive scene is confidently
of corresponding form, the neck and shoulder painted on the present piece with bold lines and
flanked by a pair of handles extending from the washes of cobalt in a manner appropriate to its
neck to the narrow sides, each main side of the large and weighty form.
vessel painted in shaded tones of cobalt blue with
a pair of magpies perched on gnarled branches Another flask of this form and design in the Osaka
issuing globular fruiting plants and clusters of City Municipal Museum, Osaka, is illustrated
leaves, the handles and narrow sides densely in Schincho Kogei no bi [Qing Ceramics from
decorated with undulating lotus scrolls, the rim the Collection of Umezawa Kinenkan], Tokyo,
and neck bordered with bands of classic scroll 1993, pl. 70. The only other example that ever
and upright plantain leaves respectively, all above appears to have been sold at auction, acquired
a pendent ruyi frieze encircling the foot, the base by Eskenazi Ltd from our London rooms, 5th July
inscribed with a six-character seal mark 1977, lot 232, is now in the Matsuoka Museum of
49.5 cm, 19½ in. Art, Tokyo, illustrated in the Museum’s Selected
Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Tokyo, 1984,
PROVENANCE pl. 135.

Christie’s London, 6th November 1995, lot 85. See also an unmarked flask of this form and large
size, but painted with a flower scroll, illustrated
HK$ 500,000-800,000 in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection,
US$ 64,000-103,000 Tokyo, 1987, pl. 948; and another sold in our
London rooms, 27th November 1973, lot 261.

清雍正 青花花鳥紋喜上枝頭海棠式龍耳扁壺 For the prototype of this design see a Xuande
《大清雍正年製》款 mark and period dish included in Special
Exhibition. Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National
來源： Museum, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 258.
倫敦佳士得1995年11月6日，編號85

Mark SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
122