Page 51 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art NYC September 2023

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A PAIR OF YELLOW-GROUND GRISAILLE- 清光緒 約1885年 黃地墨彩牡丹紋缽罐
PAINTED ‘TIHEDIAN’ ‘PEONY’ FISHBOWLS 一對
QING DYNASTY, GUANGXU PERIOD, CIRCA 1885
each with a four-character Tihedian zhi seal mark in iron red 《體和殿製》款
below the rim (2)
Diameter 14½ in., 36 cm 來源
阿姆斯特丹蘇富比1995年10月17日，編號313
PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 17th October 1995, lot 313.
Tihedian (Hall of Embodied Harmony) was one of the six
palaces in the north-western section of the Forbidden
City. As part of the renovation work in celebration the
50th birthday of the Dowager Empress, this building was
redesigned to connect to Chuxiu Palace, her place of
residence, transforming it into her dining area.
Pieces bearing Tihedian zhi marks are often characterized
by their smaller size, floral motifs, and ink-colored enamel
against a color ground, and were probably created for
decorating this palace. The flower motifs on this pair are
similar to the peony painted by Dowager Empress Cixi,
in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Chen Kelun,
‘Huafan jinse yongqing Changchun. Cixi he ta de yuyong
ciqi [Flourishing blossoms and splendid colors. Cixi and her
imperial porcelain]’, Forbidden City, September 2019, p. 130.
Compare a closely related example, on a yellow ground but
decorated with famille-rose enamel, illustrated in Gugong
zhencang Cixi de ciqi [Porcelain of Cixi collected in the
Palace Museum], Beijing, 2013, pl. 54; and a jar with same
decoration but of larger size, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong,
30th May 2018, lot 3126; another jar, with similar peony
decoration but on a turquoise ground, sold in our Hong Kong
rooms, 3rd June 2016, lot 870.

$ 60,000-80,000

98 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11275 THE LEGACY OF CIXI. LATE QING PORCELAIN FROM THE BARBARA JEAN LEVY COLLECTION 99