Page 109 - Sotheby's May 10th 2017 London Important Chinese Art

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A MING STYLE BLUE AND WHITE ‘PEACH’ Qianlong mark and period moon asks of this type are held in
MOONFLASK important museums and private collections worldwide; see one
QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD in the Nanjing Museum, published in The O cial Kiln Porcelain
of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2004, pl. 220; another
the attened circular body rising from a short spreading foot in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, included in the Museum’s
to a tall cylindrical neck, anked by a pair of ruyi handles, exhibition Beauty and Tranquillity. The Eli Lilly Collection
moulded to both sides with a peach-shaped panel in low of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cat. no. 116; and a third
relief and painted with bats ying around leafy branches with included in the exhibition Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong
clusters of fruit, surrounded by scrolling lotus, the sides with Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
a vertical band of lingzhi scroll, rising to a band of lotus scroll, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 66. Further examples include two
with upright lappets and further lingzhi at the neck, the base sold in our Hong Kong rooms, one from the collection of R.I.C.
inscribed with a seal mark Herridge, sold 29th November 1978, lot 235, and the other, 7th
24 cm, 9⅜ in. October 2015, lot 3725.

PROVENANCE ಴£ 40,000-60,000
HK$ 386,000-580,000 US$ 49,700-74,500
Sotheby’s London, 14th November 2000, lot 158.
2000 11 14 158
This moon ask has been executed to imitate the celebrated
wares of the early 15th century through both its form and the
use of the ‘heaped and piled’ technique to render the design.
Qing craftsmen skilfully manipulated the cobalt pigment to
simulate the uneven blue tones of early Ming underglaze blue
designs. Its attened globular form, tall and gently waisted
neck, and two handles were also adapted from early Ming
prototypes, such as a moon ask attributed to the Yongle
reign (1403-24), painted with ower sprays, from the former
collection of the Ottoman Sultans and now in the Topkapi
Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese
Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2,
London, 1986, pl. 613.

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