Page 42 - Sotheby's Imperial Chiense Porcelain Nov 4 2020 London

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A RARE LARGE DOUCAI ‘’FLORAL’ MEIPING 清十八世紀 闘彩纏枝花卉紋梅瓶連蓋
AND COVER
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
sturdily potted with a tapering body elegantly rising to a
broad rounded shoulder and surmounted by a short waisted
neck, the voluptuous body wreathed with prominent floral
blossoms borne on stylised foliage issuing further colourful
blooms and buds between a band of ruyi heads and an
elongated lappet border, the neck rendered with a row of
ruyi heads collaring the mouth and stylised lappet border
together with a narrow band of composite scrolls skirting
the foot, the well-fitted cover similarly decorated with flower
scrolls and embellished with stylised lappets radiating from
the lotus bud finial on the slightly domed top
(2)
Height 46.7 cm, 18⅜ in.
‡ £ 50,000-80,000

Notable for its generous proportions and finely painted
feathery scroll in doucai enamels, meiping of this type
are rare and no other closely related example appears
to have been published. The floral scroll was masterfully
executed, with each bloom and flowering bud skillfully
painted as viewed from a different angle, thus creating a
sophisticated and yet uncontrived design.
A slightly smaller meiping and cover with a dragon
against a similarly rendered flower scroll, from the Qing
Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The
Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum.
Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours,
Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 237; and one lacking the cover and
painted with bajixiang, from the collection of Gordon
Cummings, was sold at Christie’s New York, 3rd June
1988, lot 313.
This vase echoes in multiple ways the celebrated
porcelain tradition of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644); the
doucai colour scheme, whereby the outlines of the design
were first painted in underglaze blue and later filled in
overglaze enamels, references the Chenghua reign (r.
1465-1487), when the quality of doucai porcelain was at
its peak. Its rendering of the floral blooms and feathery
scroll, as well as the decorative band at the foot, on the
other hand recall porcelain designs of the early Ming
period. A Yongle (r. 1403-1424) period meiping, of much
smaller size, painted with lotus buds and blooms, in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the
Museum’s exhibition Radiating Hues of Blue and White.
Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelains in the National
Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. 15; and
a reconstructed meiping with a Xuande mark and of the
period, painted with dragons above a similar band at
the foot, recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming
imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen, is illustrated in Imperial
Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty,
Beijing, 2018, pl. 61.

80 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstances). 81
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