Page 142 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

Although the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723- The present dish clearly stands in this practice of early Ming
35) lasted no longer than thirteen years, it had a huge dynasty revivals. Its decor brings to mind a familiar design
impact on the porcelain production of the Qing dynasty of early Ming blue-and-white dishes: a melon vine with two
(1644-1911). Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, he was a large fruits and a smaller one rooted in the ground, with a
strong patron of the arts. Already as a prince, before he flower scroll around the cavetto and a wave band at the rim
ascended the throne, Yongzheng had shown a keen interest of the Yongle period (1403-1424), see an example from the
in porcelains and had copies made of earlier ceramic ware Tianminlou collection, illustrated in Blue-and-White Porcelain
at the Jingdezhen imperial kilns. Himself an excellent from the Tianminlou Collection, Chang Foundation, Taipei,
administrator, he immediately recognized the importance 1992, cat. no. 25 and for an excavated example from the
of good management of the imperial factory. In 1726, early waste heaps of the imperial kilns at Zhushan, Jingdezhen
in his reign, he chose his Minister of Imperial Household, chutu Yuan Ming guanyao ciqi/Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial
Nian Xiyao (1617-1738), as Superintendent of Customs Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Beijing, 1999, pl. 70.
and Director of the Jingdezhen imperial kilns. Nian Xiyao On the present dish, the Yongle design is ingeniously
effectively ran the industry, personally supervising the renewed by adding further embellishments to the melons
production for the court. During that time, Tang Ying (1682- and flowers. The shading of the blue evokes the ‘heaped and
1756) became involved at the Jingdezhen kilns as Assistant piled’ effect of the early blue-and-white and the specks on
Supervisor, and it was entirely to his credit that porcelain the melons, flowers and leaves that of the burnt cobalt spots,
production, both in terms of quality and technology, reached as if a flaw had now been turned into a decorative feature.
an unprecedented high level.
After Yongle, the melon as decorative motif was less seen
As source of inspiration, Tang Ying took some of the on porcelain, although some bowls and dishes display it in a
best examples of the previous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) different composition, such as a Chenghua (1465-1487) mark
porcelains. Not merely copying, he went further yet, by and period ‘palace’ bowl, decorated with three individual
adding new imaginative details to the original Ming designs.