Page 291 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

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A LARGE FAMILLE ROSE TURQUOISE-GROUND JARDINIÈRE

TONGZHI-GUANGXU PERIOD (1862-1908)
The body is decorated with numerous butterfies of various hues in fight amidst gilt shuangxi characters on a turquoise
ground beneath a band of ruyi-heads under the fat, everted rim with scalloped edge enameled with a band of key fret on the
sides and further butterfies amidst gourds on top. The base is inscribed with the four-character Tihedian zhi mark in iron-red
seal script and pierced with two holes for drainage.
15¬ in. (39.8 cm.) diam.

$10,000-15,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, New England.

The Tihedian (Hall of Manifest Harmony) was one of the six palaces in the northwestern sector of the Forbidden City where
the Empress Dowager Cixi lived during much of her tenure as Regent to her son, Emperor Tongzhi. Special porcelain
pieces were designed and produced for several of these palaces during the Tongzhi to Guangxu periods under the
supervision of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and these wares were usually marked with names of their palace designation; for
example, another well-known palace hall mark on porcelain from this period is the Dayazhai mark.

Compare a yellow and blue-glazed jardinière of similar form, also with a Tihedian zhi seal mark, but slightly smaller (31.2
cm. diam.), illustrated in Gongyang yuci, Beijing, 2007, pp. 234-35, no. 57. For a rectangular jardinière with a related
butterfy and shou-character design, dated to the Tongzhi period, see ibid., pp. 90-91.
清同治/光緒 松石綠地粉彩百蝶紋大花盆 礬紅「體和殿製」篆書款

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