Page 54 - In His Majesty's Palm Excuisite Playthings April 5 17 HK Sothebys

Exquisitely enamelled and elegantly composed, this bowl
belongs to a select group of yangcai porcelain produced for
the Qianlong Emperor in the early years of his reign. Yangcai
ware was greatly favoured by the Qianlong Emperor and was
one of the most prized types of porcelain in the Qing court.
These treasures were primarily kept in the Emperor’s largest
private quarters, the Qianqinggong [‘Palace of Heavenly
Purity’], located in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City, and
in the European-style palaces of the Yuanmingyuan, another
of his personal favoured settings. This bowl is particularly
notable and rare for the effective use of a sepia wash to subtly Ming dynasty. Western methods of creating the illusion of light
outline the flower basket designs and leafy panels to give the
impression of a warm golden glow and three-dimensionality.
No closely related counterpart to this cup appears to have
been published; however it bears striking resemblance to
related lavishly decorated yangcai wares recorded to have
been produced between the sixth and tenth year of Qianlong
and held in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and shown
in the Museum’s exhibition Stunning Decorative Porcelains
from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, 2008. This exhibition effectively
captured the spectacular new range of colours that were
developed, thus endowing the wares with a Westernised
flavour while remaining steeped in Chinese tradition. The
present bowl may comprise one of the sixty-nine pieces of
yangcai porcelain recorded as being presented to the Qianlong
Emperor in the in the eighth month of the seventh year of his
reign (corresponding to 1741). Elements of its design are seen
on a number of pieces from this exhibition; for example see
a pair of vases with similar flower baskets within leafy ruyi-
shape cartouches, cat. no. 47 (fig. 1); and a bowl and vase with
related leafy cartouches, cat. nos 3 and 38. Compare also a
pair of powder-blue ground vases with incised sgraffiato fronds
surrounding ruyi-shape panels depicting flowers, cat. no. 30.
Most of the yangcai pieces with comparable decoration from
the Qing court collection listed above can be dated to the
seventh year.
The palette and development of yangcai porcelain can
be attributed to the genius of Tang Ying (1682-1756),
Superintendent of the imperials kilns in Jingdezhen during
the Yongzheng and early Qianlong periods. Liao Pao Show, in
‘On Yang-ts’ai Porcelains of the Ch’ien-lung Reign’, Stunning
Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National
Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 36, notes that the production
of yangcai porcelain was perfected under Tang after the
sixth year of the Qianlong Emperor, following the Emperor’s
complaint that the porcelain made in the first six years of his
reign were of significantly lower quality than those from the
previous Yongzheng period.
52 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
These yangcai decorated pieces are characterised by their
successful synthesis of traditional Chinese elements with
newly acquired Western techniques. Thus they required the
highest level of skill and execution and it is not surprising
that they are exceedingly rare. As the term yangcai (‘Western
colours’) suggests, the palette is inspired by European
paintings, which relied heavily on the use of white pigment. The
craftsman of the present piece has employed predominantly
foreign hues of pastel blues, green and pinks and juxtaposed
them with rich iron-red, a pigment developed from the early
and shadow through subtle tonal gradations fill the leafy scrolls
that form the auspicious ruyi-shape cartouches, as well as
the petals and lobed flower basket. A basket of flowers is the
emblem of Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, and
thus this motif carries the wish for wealth, good fortune and
longevity.
Another influence on a number of yangcai porcelain was Beijing
enamelled wares, first produced by Jesuit missionary artists
working in the Qing court from the Kangxi reign. While known
from metal-bodied wares, the use of pastel blue for the ground
as seen on this bowl is unusual for porcelain. Furthermore, the
employment of gold for the rim further suggests the influence
of Beijing enamel on its aesthetics; for example see a painted
enamel bowl, decorated with a peony scroll on a light blue
ground, with Kangxi reign mark and of the period, in the Palace
Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Compendium of Collections
in the Palace Museum. Enamels, vol. 5, Painted Enamels in the
Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 26.
The blue ground of this bowl has been further embellished
with blue enamel curling fronds in the sgraffiato technique.
Commonly known as jinshangtianhua (‘adding decorative
pattern onto brocades’), the development of this laborious
technique is also attributed to Tang Ying. The technique
consisted of reserving the design on a monochrome enamel
ground, which itself is structured by needle-point etching or
enamelling of endless scrolling fronds. Such rich decoration,
coupled with the generous spacing of the floral cartouches,
is reminiscent of French rococo textiles, specimens of which
would have entered the court through Jesuit missionaries and
merchants in Guangdong.