Page 122 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

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A RARE RUBY-GROUND 清十八世紀

CANTON ENAMEL ‘SANDUO’ 廣東銅胎畫琺瑯紫地
RUYI SCEPTRE 洋花三多如意

QING DYNASTY, 18TH
CENTURY

cast with an elongated curved shaft with angular gilt edges,
the centre with a protruding mid-section, between a convex
ruyi head with a pointed tip and a terminal modelled in the
form of a stylised ruyi bloom, densely decorated all over on
the front and reverse of both the shaft and ruyi head with
various floral blooms borne on leafy scrolls and interspersed
with fruiting sanduo sprays and accentuated with scrolling
blue borders, the end further decorated with an outstretched
bat, the thin sides adorned with a floral border, all picked out
in bright enamels against a rich ruby-red ground speckled in
black, the end with a small loop
54.3 cm, 21⅜ in.

HK$ 800,000-1,000,000
US$ 102,000-128,000

Elaborately painted with dense floral scrolls and the
auspicious sanduo against a radiant ruby-red ground, this is
a rare and impressive example of a painted metal-bodied ruyi
sceptre. The vibrant palette of glossy enamels and its complex
design, which skilfully combines both precise outlines with
washes of colour, are reminiscent of the finest silk brocade,
which would have been introduced to China through the ports
of Guangdong.
A sceptre of this type, with a Qianlong reign mark and of
the period, painted with bats and a ‘shou’ medallion on the
roundel amidst scrolling flowers and leaves on a yellow
ground, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included
in the Museum’s exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Ju-I
Sceptres in the National Palace Museum, 1974, pl. 30;
another decorated with flowers, scrolling leaves and a bat,
in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Compendium
of Collections in the Palace Museum. Enamels. 5. Painted
Enamels in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1944), Beijing, 2011, pl.
175; and a blue-ground sceptre decorated with the Eight
Buddhist Emblems surrounded by flowers, fruits and scrolling
leaves, attributed to the first quarter of the 19th century, in
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, is illustrated
in T.B. Arapova, Chinese Painted Enamels. Collection of the
State Hermitage, Moscow, 1988, pl. 174.

120 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比