Page 160 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Nov 2014 Hong Kong

Decorative lanterns are associated with festivals
and celebrations, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival,
or birthdays, weddings and other auspicious
occasions. In particular there is an association with
harvest, since the first character of lantern, 燈 deng,
can be read as a pun for an abundant harvest, 豐登
fengdeng, and this can further be interpreted as a
wish for times of abundance, peace and prosperity.

The ‘medallion bowl’ design, typically with four
circular medallions reserved on a sgraffiato
enamelled ground and with underglaze blue painting
on the interior, developed during the Qianlong period
and continued into the Jiaqing period, although it
became most widespread during the Daoguang
period. Jiaqing examples are correspondingly rare,
and very few other examples of single bowls exist.
A pair of such bowls is even more exceptional,
however a rare example of a pair of ruby-ground
medallion bowls, Jiaqing seal marks and of the
period, but containing flowers in the medallions
(accession no. Franks.618.+) was previously in the
collection of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks and is
now in the British Museum, London.

A ruby-ground example with landscapes in the
medallions, but Qianlong seal mark and of the
period, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of
Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain with
Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose
Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, no.104. A very
similar bowl also with lanterns and precious objects
in the medallions, but with a Daoguang mark, from
the collection of Dr. S.Y.Kwan, was included in the
exhibition Joined Colors, Washington D.C., 1993,
p.131, no.58; and another described as having a
‘purple ground’ is illustrated by Geng Baochang,
Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p.300,
pl.507.

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