Page 80 - Important Chinese Art Sothebys March 2019

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A PAIR OF COPPER-RED AND exquisitely painted with silhouettes of bats Whilst the combination of copper red and
CELADON-GLAZED ‘WUFU’ BOWLS against a luminous celadon ground, these bowls celadon appears to be an innovation of the Qing
YONGZHENG MARKS AND PERIOD are quintessentially Yongzheng in character. dynasty, the design was clearly inspired by
elegant and unassuming at first glance, they ming dynasty prototypes. Bowls and stembowls
each with steeply rising sides flaring subtly exhibit the skill of the craftsmen in their ability decorated with silhouettes of animals, fish and
at the rim, covered overall in a pale celadon to successfully control the temperamental fruit originated in the early ming dynasty, during
glaze thinning to white at the mouth, with copper pigment, while hinting at China’s the reigns of the Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande
five bats in varying states of flight painted in glorious porcelain tradition and conveying (1426-35) emperors. this technique was
copper-red to the exterior, the base glazed portents of good fortune. Bowls of this type notoriously difficult and was largely abandoned
white and inscribed with a six-character mark in appear on the list of porcelains supplied to at Jingdezhen thereafter, until it was revived in
underglaze blue within a double circle (2) the court and compiled in 1729 by tang Ying the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). recent research
Diameter 6⅛ in., 16 cm (1682-1756), the Yongzheng emperor’s trusted by peter Lam and other leading scholars
official who in 1726 was sent to Jingdezhen to indicate that the inspiration to revisit the
PROVENANCE supervise porcelain production. translated by celebrated but technically challenging pigment
Gump’s, san Francisco, 1940s (by repute). s. W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art, London, occurred in the early years of the Kangxi period,
Collection of andrew n. Jergens (1881-1967). 1981, p. 198, tang Ying mentions ‘Copies of under the direction of Zang Yingxuan, who was
Lung-ch’üan glaze decorated in ruby red. this is sent to Jingdezhen in 1681. By the Yongzheng
a new process, introduced during the reigning period, the technique had been perfected and
dynasty. there are also the following four kinds achieved its finest form of expression.
of decoration: (1) With three fishes, (2) with a bowl of this type in the Baur Collection
three fruits, (3) with three ling-chih, (4) with Geneva, is illustrated in John ayers, Chinese
five bats.’
Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva,

78 SOTHEBY’S Important ChInese art