Page 176 - Bonhams Hong K June 2016

The present pair of doucai waterpots is exceptionally rare and
aesthetically pleasing. Only four other examples appear to have
been published as follows: a single waterpot, from the Qing Court
collection, is illustrated in Small Refined Articles of the Study. The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Shanghai,
2009, p.223, no.221; another single example, possibly the pair to the
Palace Museum, Beijing example, is in the collection of the Nanjing
Museum, illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln
Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.178 (it is
interesting to note that these presumed pair of waterpots both have
seemingly lighter shades of enamels and do not have red enamel
highlights); and a pair of waterpots, previously in the collections of
C.T.Loo, Paris, Paul and Helen Bernat, Boston, and the Shimentang
collection, was sold by Eskenazi Ltd., illustrated in the catalogue Qing
Porcelain from a Private Collection, London, 2012, no.3.
The Yongzheng emperor who practiced a balanced combination
of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, became in later life
increasingly involved in Daoist matters related to the ‘elixir of
immortality’, even bestowing upon a high official the pill of longevity. ‘scholar’s desk’. The very small number of extant doucai waterpots of
However, on 8 October 1735 he passed away, possibly as a result
of consuming toxic materials contained in the ‘elixir of immortality’.
The Imperial pursuit of longevity and consumption of ‘elixirs of
immortality’ is said to also have been practiced by Qinshi Huangdi
(260-210 BC), China’s first emperor, and by the Ming emperor Jiajing
(1522-1566). In all three cases, this pursuit proved ineffective.
The power of granting the ‘elixir of immortality’ is attributed to the
divine Daoist deity Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, in whose
garden, said to be hidden by high clouds in the Kunlun mountains,
grow the peaches of immortality, ripening once every 3,000 years.
One of the paintings in the Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in
Costumes from the Palace Museum, Beijing, shows the emperor
wearing a multi-coloured robe, reminiscent in colour scheme of
the present pair of waterpots, offering a peach of immortality to a
monkey; see E.S.Rawski and J.Rawson, eds., China: The Three
Emperors 1662-1795, London, 2005, pp.167-168.
The wispy lingzhi-shaped five-coloured clouds, ‘wuse yun’ (五色雲) or
‘qing yun’ (慶雲), depicted on the present lot, represent the emperor’s
wish for longevity. The motif can be further interpreted as a pun on
the word ‘cloud’, yun (雲), which is a homophone for fuyun (福運),
‘good fortune’. In an agricultural society, the rain-bearing clouds
would have been perceived as a benevolent omen, for the necessary
irrigation of the crops.
It is interesting to note that the Yongzheng emperor seemed to have
a particular fondness for the physical as well as symbolic appearance
of qing yun between the 7th and the 10th year of his reign (1729
– 1732). Scenes of auspicious five-coloured clouds appearing
above the sky were recorded several times in the Palace memorials
presented to the emperor. The Imperial archives also recorded that
paintings depicting such particular type of clouds were ordered by
the Yongzheng emperor in 1730, see Lin Lina, ‘Auspicious symbols
and scenes of the Yongzheng period’, in Feng Mingzhu, Harmony and
Integrity: The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, 2009,
pp. 374 – 399.
18 | BONHAMS
The Yongzheng emperor’s fondness for this decoration is evident
in the number of extant Imperial works of art, similarly decorated
with multi-coloured clouds, including the carved wooden plaque
inlaid with painted enamel wispy clouds and the inscription reading
‘Heed Rashness and Use Perseverance’; a painted enamel snuff
bottle, Yongzheng mark and period; a painted enamel tiered box and
cover, Yongzheng mark and period; and a stand with a hanging fish
pendant, depicted in ‘Yinzhen’s [Yongzheng’s] Amusements: Copying
a Sutra in a Studio’, illustrated in the National Palace Museum, Taipei
exhibition catalogue by Feng Mingzhu, ibid., Taipei, 2009, pp.20, 116-
117, 258 and 269. See also a doucai bottle vase, Yongzheng mark
and period, similarly decorated with cloud scrolls, which was sold at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2010, lot 1862.
The above examples illustrate the emperor’s use of this highly
particular stylised motif with which he personally identified and for
decorating objects for his personal use. It is therefore not surprising
that the same auspicious motif was also employed on one of the
essential literati paraphernalia, especially made for the Imperial
this particular design indicates their exclusive Imperial use.
The use of this motif on a waterpot, though in a more refined and
colourful palette, also presented a continuation of related waterpots
made during the reign of his father, the Kangxi emperor. Such vessels
were of more conical form, with carved wispy cloud scrolls, covered
in white or celadon glaze; for a white-glazed example, Kangxi mark
and period, see Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the
Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl.227; and for a
celadon-glazed example, Kangxi mark and period, from the Nanjing
Museum, see Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain
of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.107. However, the
combined use of the doucai palette and lingzhi-shaped cloud scroll
decoration was inspired by bowls from the Chenghua period; for
Chenghua examples from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua Porcelain Ware,
1465-1487, Taipei, 2003, pp.153-155 and p.156 for a Wanli example,
nos.143-150.
The Yongzheng emperor personally influenced the artistic direction
of the Imperial kiln production, achieving together with the celebrated
kiln supervisor Tang Ying an unsurpassed standard of quality,
aesthetic subtlety and refinement by merging his admiration both of
classic styles of the past and of contemporary innovation. His interest
in antiques, scholarly objects and curios, and arguably his wish to
be identified as a cultivated literatus, is demonstrated in the scroll
painting titled Guwan tu (古玩圖) or ‘Record of Ancient Playthings’,
dated 1729, illustrated by Rawski and Rawson, ibid., pp.252-255;
as well as in a number of paintings depicting him beside a scholar’s
desk, see Feng Minzhu, ibid., pp.115 and 117. The present pair of
waterpots therefore, represents an outstanding example of the
highest level of Imperial porcelain production and innovation at its
zenith, realised during the Yongzheng period.