Page 88 - Christies May 2016

PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH LADY

(marks)

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A RARE PAIR OF MOULDED PALE CELADON-GLAZED BOWLS
YONGZHENG UNDERGLAZE-BLUE SIX-CHARACTER MARKS WTIHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND
OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The exterior of each bowl is moulded in low-relief with three descending bats, each clasping in its mouth a

leafy spray with two gourds, covered overall in an even pale celadon glaze.

4√ in. (12.3 cm.) diam. (2)

£80,000-120,000 $120,000-170,000
€110,000-150,000

PROVENANCE:

From the collection of Mrs. M. E. G. Birtles.
Sotheby’s London, 13 March 1973, lot 289.

This exquisite and rare pair of bowls has a delicacy and precision characteristic of fne imperial wares
of the Yongzheng period. The bowls are thinly potted but have sharply moulded low relief decoration
under an even pale celadon glaze. The decorative scheme, with three bats each holding sections of vine
with bottle gourds in their mouths, can also be seen on an imperial overglaze enamelled bowl from the
Yongzheng reign in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures
of the Palace Museum 38 Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 171,
no. 157). The design of bats and vines with bottle gourds is an auspicious one, which provides a rebus
suggesting either fulu shuangguan ‘May you have both blessings and wealth’ or fulu wandai ‘May you
have blessings and emolument for ten thousand generations’.

In the 18th century the Jingdezhen imperial kilns devoted considerable research and experimentation
to the production of celadon glazes applied to a white porcelain body. Although celadon-type glazes,
coloured with small quantities of iron, applied to a porcelain body were produced at Jingdezhen in the
early Ming period, the Kangxi potters perfected a more delicate version applied to a very white (low
iron) body. The delicate celadon glaze was coloured using only about half the amount of iron found in
typical Longquan celadons. The glaze was further modifed in the Yongzheng period to produce an even
more fnely textured and slightly bluer pale celadon glaze, like that seen on these exquisite bowls. These
pale celadon glazes and the others created with minute variations in tone and texture have been much
admired by Chinese connoisseurs and were given names such as douqing (bean green) and dongqing
(eastern green) in the Kangxi reign, while the even more refned colours of the Yongzheng reign were
given names such as fenqing (soft green) and dongqing (winter green), which is the colour of the glaze
seen on this pair of bowls.

A slightly larger bowl of similar design, from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat, was sold at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 15 November 1988, lot 68, and again at Christie’s London, 11 June 1990, lot 164,
when it appeared on the cover of the catalogue. A pair of similar bowls was sold at Christie’s South
Kensington, 15 July 2005, lot 259; and another pair similar in size to the current examples sold at
Christie’s New York, 20 March 2001, lot 262. A single, slightly larger bowl, formerly in the collection of
E.T. Hall, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June, 2011, lot 3520.

清雍正 粉青釉葫蘆萬代紋碗一對 雙圈雙行六字楷書款

來源: 英國Birtles夫人珍藏，於1973年3月13日倫敦蘇富比拍賣，拍品第289號

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