Page 43 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

521

AN UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND
COPPER-RED DOUBLE-GOURD
‘IMMORTALS’ WINE EWER,
WARMER AND COVER
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY /
EARLY 19TH CENTURY

the pear-shaped ewer set to one side with a
curved spout and to the other with a loop handle,
with a deep cylindrical container and extending
from the base, surmounted by a slightly domed
cover with a bud nial, all supported on a globular
warmer set with a pair of lion-mask handles, the
vessels painted with the Eight Daoist Immortals
against a dense ground of turbulent waves
painted in copper-red, with bats and scattered
clouds painted to the lower body, handle, spout
and cover of the ewer, the base of the warmer
with a four-character hallmark reading Qingyi
Tang zhi (Hall of Blessings and Correctness)
within a double square in underglaze blue (3)
Height 7⅜ in., 18.8 cm

The hallmark, Qingyi Tang zhi, refers to the ‘Hall
of Blessings and Correctness’, and is associated
with porcelains produced during the Yongzheng
to Jiaqing periods. A mille eurs famille-rose bowl
inscribed with the same hallmark, is illustrated
in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné
Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration,
Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 184, where it is attributed to
the Jiaqing period.

Compare a wine warmer of similar form and
decoration in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
inscribed with a Yongzheng mark, illustrated by
Warren E. Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain,
vol. II, New York, 1949, pl. 164, g. 872. Another,
in the Royal Ontario Museum, is inscribed with a
Caihua tang zhi (Hall of Brilliant Splendor) mark,
accession number 911.8.60A-C. A third example,
inscribed with a Yanghe tang zhi (Hall for
Cultivating Harmony), in the collection of Seikadō
Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo, is illustrated in
Seikadō zō Shinchō tōji. Keitokuchin kanyō no bi
[Qing dynasty porcelain collected in the Seikado.
Beauty of Jingdezhen imperial kilns], Seikado
Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 41.

$ 40,000-60,000

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 41