Page 77 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

卡內基美術館，匹茲堡，得於1955年

Catalogue Note
These bowls are striking for their exquisitely enameled motif of floral sprays against richly decorated yellow and coral grounds.
This exuberant motif was inspired by the celebrated falangcai porcelain of the Kangxi period (1662-1722), which were created by
Chinese craftsmen working together with Jesuit missionaries in the imperial enameling workshop within the Forbidden City. Here,
dark-colored grounds adorned with vibrant floral designs were favored for their dramatic demonstration of the newly developed
enamels. These novel designs were soon replicated at the imperial kiln factory in Jingdezhen, where they remained highly
influential throughout the Qing dynasty.

While these bowls do not appear to closely follow a specific prototype, they were likely inspired by a falangcai ruby-ground bowl
with similar floral panels and a Kangxi yuzhi mark, from the Qing Court Collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete
Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong
Kong, 1999, pl. 2. On these bowls iron red substitutes the ruby enamel, and leafy tendrils at the sides of the panels were added.
The latter draw inspiration from textiles and were a particularly favored decorative motif in the Qianlong period. A similar design
was developed in the Yongzheng reign (r. 1723-1735), although it did not enter the potter’s regular repertoire as only one example
appears to be published. See a bowl from the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, offered at Christie’s New York, 21st September
1995, lot 200.

Bowls of this design are rare, and only three closely related examples appear to be known; the first, from the British Rail Pension
Fund, the Tsui Museum of Art, and the Jingguantang Collections, was sold twice in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 81,
and 8th April 2007, lot 802, and at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot 2994; the second, from the collection of the Grierson
family, was sold in our London rooms, 14th November 2001, lot 104; and the third was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 5th-6th
November 1997, lot 956.

This design became increasingly popular after the Qianlong reign, and examples are known with Jiaqing (r. 1796-1820), Daoguang
(r. 1821-1850) and Guangxu (r. 1875-1908) reign marks; a Jiaqing mark and period bowl included in the Oriental Ceramic Society
exhibition Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain in the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, cat. no. 199, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms,
3rd May 1994, lot 214; a Daoguang mark and period example from the Ohlmer Collection in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, is
illustrated in Ulrich Wiesner, Chinesisches Porzellan, Mainz am Rhein, 1981, pl. 138; and a further bowl with a Guangxu mark and of
the period, in the Weishaupt Collection, was published in Gunhild Avitabile, From the Dragon’s Treasure, London, 1987, pl. 29.

One of these bowls has the added distinction of its association with the illustrious Sassoon family which established trading ties
with the East in the early 19th century. Sybil Luna Moses Dangoor, who bequeathed the bowl to her daughter, was the
granddaughter of David Sassoon (1792-1864). Based first in Mumbai, David Sassoon moved the family business to Shanghai
where, by the mid-19th century, there was a flourishing Jewish community of Baghdadian origin, nearly all of whom were following
in the intrepid footsteps of Sassoon whose eponymous firm was one of the most successful international trading operations in the
world.

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