Page 23 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

Exquisitely painted with the Eight Daoist Immortals dressed The doucai style is ideally suited for rendering this scene
in billowing robes illustrated crossing the rough sea after of the Eight Immortals. A perfect harmony of delicately
attending the Peach Festival of the Queen Mother of the pencilled underglaze-blue lines with vivid blocks of iron red,
West, these bowls testify to the great developments in yellow, green and aubergine endow the scene with a sense
porcelain production during the Yongzheng period. The of ethereality which is fitting to the subject. Furthermore,
precision of the cobalt pencilled lines and shading captured the doucai style, which was originally probably referred
on the robes of the immortals reveals the refinement of the to as wucai, ‘five colours’, and the clouds surrounding
porcelain and the craftsmen’s mastery over techniques and the immortals carry further symbolic meaning. ‘Rainbow-
materials as a direct result of the Emperor’s keen patronage. coloured’ or five-coloured clouds (wuse yun) are considered
highly auspicious portents of good omens. According to
Bowls of this type are rare and only four other pairs of Therese Tse Bartholomew, in Hidden Meanings in Chinese
bowls are known: one pair was sold in these rooms, 20th Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 105, clouds (yun) are used as
November 1984, lot 501; another pair was sold at Christie’s
London, 4th December 1995, lot 153; the third pair was sold a pun on the word ‘fortune’ and are considered benevolent
twice at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 617, because of their power to supply water. As seen on the
present pair of bowls, auspicious rainbow-coloured clouds
and again, 29th May 2007, lot 1462; and the fourth pair from are often depicted in lingzhi (longevity fungus) shape, and
the collection of Chutaro Nakano was sold at Christie’s Hong
Kong, 31st May 2010, lot 1876, and again in these rooms, the lingzhi itself has the form of the wish-granting ruyi
7th October 2015, lot 3637. This motif is also known painted (‘according to your wish’) sceptre. As Heir Apparent, the
Yongzheng Emperor had himself portrayed in clay wearing
in underglaze blue only, such as a bowl, from the Agatha a coat with five-coloured roundels over a cloud-decorated
and Irving Aronson collection, sold at Christie’s New York,
21st-22nd March 2013, lot 1473; and another, but the interior robe.
roundel depicting Shoulao and his deer, from the collection The clouds swirling between each Immortal indicates that
of Sir Harry Garner, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later this scene illustrates the story whereby they combined
Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, pl. LX. their powers to sail past the tempest rather than travelling
by their clouds. The proverb is a lesson on how individual
The polychrome (doucai) colour scheme, where the strengths and gifts can together be used to tackle the same
outline is drawn in underglaze blue and filled with washes
of underglaze blue and four different overglaze enamels, obstacle. This image grew in popularity after the Yongzheng
gained popularity with the Chenghua Emperor. The term reign and was rendered in various different palettes; for
example see a pair of Daoguang mark and period puce and
doucai, which refers to the interaction of the colours (cai), underglaze blue decorated rounded bowls, from the Edward
is ambiguous since the term dou allows for the colours
to be characterised as clashing or matching. Terms such T. Chow collection, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1981, lot
as ‘contrasting’, ‘contending’, ‘interlocking’, ‘joined’, and 530; and an exquisite pair of famille-rose decorated jars and
covers, with Qianlong reign marks and of the period, sold
‘dove-tailed’ have been suggested as translations, the most twice at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st March 1992, lot 656,
satisfactory rendering perhaps being ‘completion of colours’
as used by Fang Chaoying in his biographical entry on the 1st May 1995, lot 675, and again in our New York rooms,
Chenghua Emperor in Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368- 17th March 2009, lot 124. See also a doucai bowl of larger
size and broader foot decorated with the Eight Immortals
1644, New York, 1976, p. 302.
depicted in a landscape, sold in these rooms, 29th October
1991, lot 208.

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