Page 35 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Three Masterpieces
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fig. 1 fig. 2
Copper-red and underglaze-blue ‘dragon’ tianqiuping, Blue and white ‘dragon’ tianqiuping, early Ming dynasty
mark and period of Yongzheng Qing court collection
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31st October 2004, lot 25 © Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
The Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-1735) was one of the most The magnificent tianqiuping offered here is remarkable in many
innovative imperial art patrons. He encouraged the recreation ways, not only in its rare colour scheme and monumental
of masterpieces of the past at the imperial workshops, as well size, but most importantly in its unusual workmanship and
as the creation of original contemporary designs, sometimes the outstanding quality of the enamelling technique. While on
loosely based on earlier prototypes, that became equally cloisonné wares the applied metal wires generally form cells
influential in subsequent reigns. Many of these imperial or enclosures (cloisons) that are then filled with differently
products remained unmarked. The Qianlong Emperor (r. coloured glass pastes, on the present vase they are used
1736-1795), whose reign lasted for much longer, multiplied rather like freely distributed brush strokes sketching the
commissions from the imperial workshops and propagated his design, that was then filled in with delicately graded washes of
own patronage in a much more eloquent way. Most unmarked colour. That the raised metal wires are not just employed for
eighteenth-century pieces are automatically attributed to the outlines, and colour changes do not necessarily coincide with
Qianlong reign, although the Emperor is known to have been these metal separators, made possible a much more painterly
enamoured with reign marks, and stylistically largely followed approach to the subject than is customary on cloisonné wares.
his father’s lead. The lively overall composition and the admirable shading
accomplished in the reds as well as the blues, were clearly
As far as cloisonné is concerned, Yongzheng reign marks inspired by a painted porcelain prototype.
are virtually unknown, and unmarked pieces are hardly ever
attributed to the Yongzheng reign. The imperial workshops This colour scheme is of course well known from underglaze
that were active producing cloisonné wares during the Kangxi copper-red and cobalt-blue decoration on Jingdezhen
(1662-1722) and Qianlong periods did, however, not cease to porcelains, but is extremely rare for a piece of cloisonné
operate in the time in-between. Orders for cloisonné wares enamel. A very similar porcelain design did exist in the
– even if small in number – do exist among the Yongzheng Yongzheng period, a tianqiuping inscribed with the imperial
records of the Zaobanchu, the workshops supervised by the reign mark, painted with a copper-red three-clawed dragon
Imperial Household Department. emerging from among delicately shaded, fluffy blue clouds,
THREE MASTERPIECES FROM THE COLLECTION OF AN ENGLISH LADY 33
