Page 25 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art NYC September 2023

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A FINE DOUCAI ‘MAGPIE AND PRUNUS’ The design on this piece is filled with auspicious symbolism.
CONICAL BOWL The magpie (xique) is known as the bird of joy, as its name
MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG is homophonous with the word for joy (xi), as well as a
carrier of good omen. In the 18th century, this bird acquired
the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within great significance, as according to legend the founder of
a double circle the Manchu dynasty was the son of a celestial maiden who
Diameter 7⅝ in., 19.5 cm
became pregnant after consuming a red berry that a magpie
PROVENANCE had dropped on her robe.
Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, 1st November 1946. $ 40,000-60,000
Collection of Stephen Junkunc III (d. 1978).
Christie’s New York, 21st September 1995, lot 257.
清雍正 鬪彩喜上眉梢圖笠式盌
Exquisitely painted with two magpies, flowering camellia and
prunus branches, this present bowl embodies the Yongzheng 《大清雍正年製》款
Emperor’s great passion for exacting designs and innovative
shapes, insistence on outstanding quality and his advocacy 來源
of portents of good fortune. The precision of the cobalt Nagatani，芝加哥，1946年11月1日
penciled lines, which give texture to the birds and trees, 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世收藏 (1978年逝)
and the harmonious arrangement of the motif reveal the 紐約佳士得1995年9月21日，編號257
craftsmen’s mastery of techniques and materials as a direct
result of the Emperor’s personal patronage.
A bowl and cover of this type in the Shanghai Museum,
Shanghai, is illustrated in Lu Minghua, Qingdai Yongzheng
– Xuantong guanyao ciqi [Qing dynasty official wares from
the Yongzheng to the Xuantong reigns], Shanghai, 2014,
pl. 3-20, where the author mentions two further examples
in the Shanghai Museum, but one lacking its cover, p. 46;
another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum.
Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong
Kong, 1999, pl. 223; and a third, in the British Museum,
London, is illustrated in R.L. Hobson, The Later Ceramic
Wares of China, London, 1925, pl. LV, fig. 1. See also a bowl
with cover sold in our London rooms, 1st November 1966,
lot 127; and another from the Pilkington Collection sold in our
Hong Kong rooms, 5th April 2016, lot 55.

46 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11275 PROPERTY FROM THE BARBARA AND LESTER LEVY COLLECTION 47