Page 107 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art April 3 2018

fig. 1
Blue-ground yangcai vase, seal mark and period of Qianlong
Gift of Barbara D. Danielson, accession no. 1980.497
© Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Several such yangcai vases with ruby-coloured ground are publications, was sold in our London rooms, 8th/9th July
preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei: two such 1974, lot 416, and three times in these rooms, 1980, 1988, and
vases, both similarly inscribed with underglaze-blue Qianlong the last time 31st October 2004, lot 131; a pair to this vase
seal marks reserved on a bright turquoise ground, and a wall is also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi,
vase with a four-character mark, are included in the exhibition Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum
Huali cai ci, op.cit., cat. nos 18, 19 and 22, all dated by Liao Pao Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 361, pl. 42; and a pair of ruby-
Show to 1741, others with blue enamel marks on the turquoise ground sgraffiato vases, reputedly from the imperial collection,
base, attributed to 1743, cat. nos 31, 42 and 43; and for is in the Yale University Art Gallery, one of the two vases
contemporary falangcai porcelains with sgraffiato decoration illustrated in George J. Lee, Selected Far Eastern Art in the Yale
see cat. nos 81-87 and 91-96. A pair to one of the vases in University Art Gallery, New Haven & London, 1970, pl. 53.
Taipei is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Geng Baochang,
The present vase has a companion piece, identical in shape
ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection
and design, but enamelled against a bright blue sgraffiato
of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing ground, with a red rim band, in the Museum of Fine Arts,
2005, vol. 2, pl. 204; and another vase similar to a pair in
Boston, from the collection of Barbara D. Denielson (acq.
Taipei is in the Capital Museum, Beijing, see Shoudu Bowuguan
no. 1980.497) (fig. 1). The ruby-red and blue enamels were
cang ci xuan [Selection of porcelains from the Capital
occasionally also used together, for the two halves of double
Museum], Beijing, 1991, pl. 155.
vases, for example, on a piece in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
Outside the Museums in Taipei and Beijing, yangcai vases with also decorated with stylised flower scrolls on a sgraffiato
ruby-red sgraffiato designs are exceedingly rare. One meiping ground, illustrated ibid., p. 378, pl. 59.
vase decorated with floral scrolls on a ruby sgraffiato ground,
The shape, known as danping, ‘gall bladder vase’, is equally
from the collections of Alfred Morrison and Lord Margadale
characteristic of the yangcai porcelain production in the early
of Islay, part of the Fonthill Heirlooms and later the collection
1740s; examples with different designs in the National Palace
of Roger Lam, which featured in numerous exhibitions and
Museum are illustrated in Huali cai ci, op.cit., cat. nos 45-47.

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 105