Page 20 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

3401

AN IMPERIAL MOULDED 清康熙

GOURD ‘SHOU’ MEDALLION 御製模印葫蘆團壽蓮紋盌
BOWL 《康熙賞玩》款

SHANGWAN MARK AND 來源：

PERIOD OF KANGXI Galerie Eymery，巴黎，1943年4月15日
Robert de Strycker 教授（1903-1968年）收藏
the rounded sides supported on a short foot rising to a slightly
everted rim, the exterior crisply moulded with four shou
medallions interspersed with meandering lotus scrolls, all
between key-fret borders encircling the mouth-rim and foot,
the interior decorated in gilt with a central lotus medallion
encircled by five further lotus sprays on a black lacquer
ground, the naturally formed underside moulded with a four-
character Kangxi shangwan reign mark (‘Appreciated by the
Kangxi Emperor’), the gourd of a warm honey-brown tone
11.3 cm, 4½ in.
PROVENANCE
Galerie Eymery, Paris, 15th April 1943.
Collection of Professor Robert de Strycker (1903-1968).

HK$ 650,000-750,000
US$ 83,000-96,000
The humble origins of the gourd and its association with the November 1978, lot 393, and again, 8th October 2010, lot
symbolism of Daoist paradise made gourd objects highly 2185, from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection. See
appreciated by the Qing court and by the literati elite. A major also two related bowls, but with black-lacquered interiors
period of development in the moulding of gourds started without gilt decorations, from the collection of Mary and
when the Kangxi Emperor commissioned gourd vessels to George Bloch, sold in these rooms, 23rd October 2005, lots
be made in the Palace Workshop which transformed this folk 76 and 128. Another bowl of the type, in the Eugene Fuller
craft into an imperial art form. For a detailed discussion of the Memorial Collection, Seattle Art Museum, is illustrated in J. M.
early history of moulded imperial gourds see Wang Shixiang, Addis, ‘Impressed gourds’, Oriental Art, vol. x, Spring 1964, p.
‘Moulded gourds’, Gugong Bowuyuan yuankan, 1979, no. 28, fig. 2. Compare also two Kangxi bowls but with cinnabar
1, pp. 86-91, translated by Craig Clunas in the Transactions lacquered interiors sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th April
of the Oriental Ceramics Society, no. 10, London, 1981, pp. 2002, lot 523, and 7th July 2003, lot 532.
16-30.
Robert de Strycker (1903-68) was a lecturer in metallurgy at
A closely related bowl with similar gilt-decorated interior the University of Louvain in Belgium, who built up an important
and bearing a Kangxi shangwan (‘Appreciated by the Kangxi collection of lacquer, working closely with the specialists Sir
Emperor’) mark on its base, was sold in these rooms, 29th Harry Garner and Fritz Low-Beer.

Mark

18 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比