Page 125 - Bonhams FINE CHINESE ART London November 2 2021

By the Yongzheng period, the technique had been perfected and A very similar bowl with five bats, Yongzheng six-character mark
achieved its finest form of expression with the crimson-red-glaze and of the period, is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the
silhouettes of fish, pomegranates and most rare of all, bats, appearing Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.116. A similar pair, in the
on bowls, stem bowls and dishes, and bearing Imperial reign marks. Malcolm McDonald Collection, Oriental Museum, Durham University
This silhouette technique, which makes use of the copper-red glaze, is illustrated by Ireneus László Legeza, A Descriptive and Illustrated
possibly sandwiched between layers of clear glaze, is different from Catalogue of the Malcolm McDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics
the more common method of painting designs in copper-red pigment in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology School
directly onto the body before the glaze is applied. The present of Oriental Studies University of Durham, London, 1972, pl.LXXVIII,
technique, if successfully handled, results in intensely red designs nos.218-219. Another similar example is illustrated by B.Gyllensvärd,
which do not allow for the rendering of detail and are best suited Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964,
for silhouettes. pl.788.

Compare with a similar underglaze copper-red-decorated ‘bats’ bowl,
Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period, which was sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3527.

FINE CHINESE ART | 123