Page 316 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
~1810
A VERY RARE SMALL DOUCAI LOBED ‘LOTUS’ VASE Small, delicate vases of this type were displayed in the palace as receptacles
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE for fowers, possibly on a scholar’s desk. The collection of the Palace
WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735) Museum contains a portrait of the Qianlong Emperor dressed in Han attire
The vase is delicately potted with a globular body subtly divided into six lobes, seated in a scholar’s studio, that also shows a monochrome vase with lobed
and decorated with alternating lotus blooms and ruyi-heads borne on scrolling body, related to the form of the present vase, which holds fowers and sits on
tendrils, between two narrow bands of lotus scroll, all below a cylindrical neck a stand on the table. This portrait is illustrated on the front cover of Tushuo
decorated with a frieze of upright lappets, and a band of classic scroll around Qinggong ciqi dang an – wenfang juan, Beijing, 2016. Compare, also, another
the mouth. type of small doucai vase, also with a lobed body and long neck, decorated
with the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ motif, such as the one in the National
4 in. (10.2 cm.) high, hongmu stand and hongmu box
Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-
cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1986,
$200,000-300,000
pl. 46; and another in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Treasures in the
Royalty: The Oficial Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai,
2003, p. 142.
PROVENANCE
Christie’s Swire, Hong Kong, 31 October 1994, lot 618. 清雍正 鬥彩纏枝蓮紋瓜棱式小瓶 雙圈六字楷書款
This exceptionally fne vase is very rare and only a few other examples are
known. A similar example, formerly in the E. T. Chow Collection, was sold at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 134; and another was sold at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 133. A pair, formerly in the Li
Chi Bai Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November, 2017,
lot 2909; and another pair, formerly in the T. Y. Chao Collection, was sold at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lots 298.

(mark)

(another view with box)

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