Page 39 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

In his desire to revive the porcelain industry and to regain Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London,
standards of quality that had long been lost, one of the 1994, pl. 733, where the author identifies the stylized flower
Kangxi Emperor’s priorities appears to have been the sprays as peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and hibiscus; and
recreation of designs and glazes in copper red, which a fourth waterpot from the collection of C.P. Lin, included
were notoriously difficult to fire successfully and had been in the exhibition Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration,
neglected since the outstanding achievements of the Xuande Percival David Foundation, London, 1992, cat. no. 113,
period (1426-35). Among the earliest pieces successfully previously sold in these rooms, 28th November 1979, lot
produced during his reign were porcelains painted in 221, and illustrated in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Twenty Years
underglaze blue and copper red, such as the present piece. 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 88. Further examples sold
at auction include one from the collection of the Xuantong
Early in his reign, the Kangxi Emperor employed the gifted
painter, Liu Yuan (c. 1638-1685) for a decade from c. 1678 to Emperor (r. 1909-11), sold in our New York rooms, 16th April
1983, lot 488; and one formerly in the collections of Herschel
1688, to create porcelain designs. This approach of involving
a designer was highly unusual at the time and resulted in a V. Johnson and Roger Pilkington, sold in our Hong Kong
new departure for porcelain decoration. The finely penciled rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 54.
lines of the four different flowers with extending scrolling Waterpots of this form were also produced in other glaze
leaves, for example, would seem to owe their elegant design colors; see a peachbloom example, formerly in the J.
to Liu Yuan’s influence. Pierpont Morgan Collection, in the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, illustrated in The Collections of the National
Closely related waterpots are held in important museums
and collections worldwide; see one in the Palace Museum, Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Decorative Arts, Part II.
Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings. Persian and Indian Rugs
Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, 1989, and Carpets, Washington, D.C., 1998, pl. 72.; and a clair-de-
lune glazed waterpot in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated
pl. 22; one in the Shanghai Museum, published in Underglaze
Blue and Red. Elegant Decoration of Porcelain from Yuan, in Wang Qingzheng (ed.), Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the
Ming and Qing, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 118; another, from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 240.
Meiyintang Collection, included in Regina Krahl, Chinese

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