Page 90 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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PROPERTY OF A GEORGIA PRIVATE COLLECTOR have appeared at auction, the most recent being one from
A RARE COPPER-RED MING-STYLE the Pilkington Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 6th
MOONFLASK April 2016, lot 17.
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD The form was revived under the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-
1796), when a small series of these flasks was produced
the circular body set over a low, domed foot and rising to a in underglaze copper-red. Examples include a Qianlong
waisted neck and garlic-shaped mouth, each of the narrow seal mark and period one from the collection of C. P. Lin,
sides set with a small round boss at the widest point and a exhibited in the Min Chiu Society exhibition An Anthology of
ruyi-form boss at the shoulder which originally supported Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1980, cat. no.
a handle, the broad sides painted in vibrant underglaze red 118, and again in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese
with a large roundel centered with a lotus scroll enclosed Art exhibition Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration,
in a six-pointed star surrounded by a network of geometric London, 1992, cat. no. 171. See also a Qianlong seal mark
panels enclosing further scrolling and floral motifs, additional and period example from the Baur Collection, illustrated in
lotus scrolls at the narrow sides and neck, cloud bands John Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, Chinese Ceramics,
encircling the foot, the base countersunk vol. IV, London, 1974, no. A535; and one from the Malcolm
Height 7 in., 17.8 cm Macdonald Collection illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later
The design of the present moonflask is based on Middle Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. LXXXVI, fig. 1a.
Eastern metal vessels of the same shape and motif, which Qianlong period copper-red moonflasks of this type sold at
were then translated into blue and white porcelain vessels auction include a seal mark and period example formerly in the
under the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402-1424). Yongle blue and collections of Sir Harry Garner and Robert C. Bruce, but with
white flasks of this type are extremely rare, and only three the underglaze design highlighted in overglaze puce enamel,
illustrated in ibid., pl. LXXXVI, fig. 1b, and sold in our Hong Kong
rooms, 28th November 1979, lot 223; a second sold in our
Hong Kong rooms, 1st November 1999, lot 370; and a third,
from the collection of Sir Quo-Wei Lee, sold in the same rooms,
3rd October 2018, lot 113. See also two unmarked Qianlong
period examples, both missing their handles: the first, sold in
our London rooms, 17th December 1980, lot 642; the second,
sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 22nd November 1984, lot 709.
$ 30,000-50,000

清乾隆 釉裏紅蓮花錦紋扁壺

88 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART