Page 162 - Sotheby's Sir Quo Wei Lei Collection Oct. 3, 2018

129

A PEACHBLOOM-GLAZED BEEHIVE WATERPOT
MARK AND PERIOD OF KANGXI

清康熙 豇豆紅釉刻團螭紋太白尊

《大清康熙年製》款

with slightly tapering sides rising from a countersunk base to
a rounded shoulder surmounted by a short neck and lipped
mouth-rim, the exterior applied overall save for the rim and
base with a crimson-red glaze characteristically mottled
with pink sprinkles imitating the skin of a ripening peach, the
body further incised with three stylised archaistic chilong
roundels, the white base inscribed in underglaze blue with a
six-character reign mark in three columns
12.5 cm, 4⅞ in.

HK$ 300,000-400,000
US$ 38,300-51,000

Waterpots of this glaze and form are preserved in important
museums and collections around the world, including one in
the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng.
Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection,
Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142, pl. 125; one in the Shanghai Museum,
illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai
Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206; another in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne
G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York,
1989, p. 237; and a fourth example from the Sir Percival David
collection and now in the British Museum, London, published
in Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Wares, London,
1989, pl. 580, and also illustrated on the front cover.
The Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (701-762), known as a notorious
drinker, is often depicted leaning against a wine jar of this
form, for example, in a porcelain sculpture of the same period
which shows the poet seated with closed eyes and a cup
in hand, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing
Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, op. cit., p. 106,
pl. 89.

Mark