Page 182 - Christie's Chinese Works of Art March 24 and 25th, 2022 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT WASHINGTON PRIVATE COLLECTION
1046
AN IMPORTANT AND EXTREMELY RARE FAMILLE ROSE BOWL 重要華盛頓私人珍藏
YONGZHENG FOUR-CHARACTER YUZHI MARK AND OF THE PERIOD
(1723-1735) 清雍正 粉彩「福祿壽」盌 「雍正御製」四字楷書款
來源:
The finely potted bowl is decorated in delicate enamels on the interior with a
scene of Shoulao riding a deer with an attendant holding a peach, all beneath 香港蘇富比, 2001年10月29日, 拍品編號609
a flying bat. The exterior is decorated in iron red with five further bats (wufu) in
various attitudes of flight.
4æ in. (12 cm.) diam., brocade box

$250,000-350,000
PROVENANCE:
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 October 2001, lot 609.
(mark)

(additional views)

A Very Rare Early Yongzheng Yuzhi Bowl
A Very Rare Early Yongzheng Yuzhi Bowl
By Rosemary Scott
Independent scholar
Visiting ceramics research fellow, Palace Museum, Beijing
This exceptional bowl combines auspicious imagery with elegant and of Yongzheng painted enamels from the collection of the National Palace
delicate painting, and bears a very rare, underglaze blue, four-character Museum, Taipei, held in 2013, seemed to indicate that the majority of
Yongzheng yuzhi mark on its base. Yuzhi marks – frequently translated as Yongzheng yuzhi-marked porcelains were decorated with coloured grounds
‘imperially made’ or ‘made for imperial use’ - began to appear on special in styles similar to those of the Kangxi reign (see Jincheng xuying – Qing
imperial enamelled porcelains towards the end of the Kangxi reign (1662- Yongzheng falangcai ci, Taipei, 2013, pp. 50-5 and 58-63, nos. 16-20 and
1722). The four-character Kangxi yuzhi marks were usually applied in overglaze 22-4, all of which have four-character yuzhi marks written in underglaze
blue or overglaze pink enamel to the base of porcelains with coloured enamel blue). A further Yongzheng porcelain cup with underglaze blue four-
grounds, such as the two yellow-ground bowls in the collection of the Palace character yuzhi mark from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing,
Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration is illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille
and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Rose Decoration, op. cit., p. 93, no. 81. Examples of Yongzheng yuzhi marks
Palace Museum, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 6-7, nos. 4 and 5. Yuzhi marks on porcelains which do not have coloured grounds, such as the current
were primarily applied to cups and bowls, but occasionally seal-paste boxes example, are exceptionally rare. However, a small bowl, finely enamelled
and vases also bore such marks (see National Palace Museum, Taipei, Qingdai with a design of roses and bamboo on a white ground and bearing an
hua falang tezhan mulu, Taipei, 1979, nos. 17 and 1, respectively). A much underglaze blue Yongzheng yuzhi mark, from the collection of the National
smaller number of Kangxi enamelled porcelains were inscribed with four- Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Qingdai hua falang tezhan mulu, op.
character yuzhi marks in underglaze blue. One such bowl in the collection of cit., no. 43.
the Shanghai Museum, which has a design of flowers on a coral ground, is
illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection,
Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 140-1, no. 95, while other examples are preserved in the
Palace Museum, Beijing and the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The application of four-character yuzhi marks on special imperial porcelains
continued into the Yongzheng reign, but a survey of extant pieces suggests
that their use was less frequent than in the Kangxi reign. The exhibition
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