Page 168 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN COLLECTOR
835
A FINE IRON-RED-DECORATED
‘DRAGON’ WINE CUP
TONGZHI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN
UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD
(1862-1874)
The cup of inverted bell shape is decorated with
two fve-clawed dragons racing amidst fames
above a band of wind-tossed waves in pursuit of
faming pearls.
2¡ in. (6 cm.) diam.
$4,000-6,000

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, England, acquired in the 1960s.
Christie’s New York, 17 September 2008, lot 525.

A pair of similar Tongzhi-marked wine cups was
sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 May 1995, lot 655.
清同治 礬紅彩雙龍趕珠紋小盃 六字楷書款

835

ANOTHER PROPERTY
836 835 (mark)
AN IRON-RED-DECORATED YELLOW-
GROUND ‘XI’-CHARACTER’ BOWL
TONGZHI FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN
IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1862-1874)
The deep sides are decorated on the exterior with
iron-red xi (happiness) characters arranged in four
rows on a lemon-yellow ground, all between gilt
borders. The interior is white.
71 in. (18 cm.) diam.
$4,000-6,000

This bowl was made as part of one of the sets of
Imperial wedding porcelain, each of a diferent
pattern, made for the celebration of the wedding
of Cixi’s son Zaichun, the Tongzhi emperor. For
a discussion of these wedding porcelains, see
R. Longsdorf, ‘The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding
Porcelain’, Orientations, October 1996, p. 74, fg.
20, where he notes that pieces of this pattern
are very rare, with the one illustrated, fg. 20, the
only one he has seen. Also illustrated, are a pair
of bowls of a diferent shape decorated with the
same pattern, fg. 19.
清同治 黃地礬紅喜字盌 礬紅四字楷書款

836

836 (mark)

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