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A FINE AND RARE RUBY-ENAMELED CUP, 清雍正 胭脂紅釉小盃 《大清雍正年製》款
MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG
the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within 來源
a double square 美國私人收藏，得於1971至1981年之間
Diameter 3⅝ in., 9.1 cm
PROVENANCE
American Private Collection, acquired between 1971 and 1981.
The present cup, with its charming proportions and vibrant
ruby-red enamel, is an archetypal example of the Yongzheng
aesthetic. Imbued with understated refinement and the
result of technical and chemical mastery, the present cup is
indicative of the remarkably fine ceramics produced in the
early eighteenth century.
Influenced by the advent of Jesuit technology in the final
years of the Kangxi period, pink enamels of this type were
soon developed and embraced by the imperial workshops.
However, though few Kangxi examples of this type are known,
it was not until the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods that this
low-fired ruby-red enamel – produced in varying shades of
pink – became a more prominent feature in the repertoire of
Chinese ceramics. In fact, Tang Ying (1682-1756), the famed
superintendent of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, referred to
such vessels as ‘Western red-glazed wares’ in Taocheng jishi
bei ji [Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production].
Deceptively simple in form and color, the manufacture of
such monochrome cups demanded the highest level of skill
and meticulous precision, from not only the potting and
firing but also the application of the enamel, which entailed
blowing carefully through a silk gauze-covered bamboo tube
onto the biscuit to achieve the lightly speckled yet even
effect seen on the current cup.
A very small number of related Yongzheng cups is attested,
produced in a range of similar shapes and sizes. Compare
a slightly smaller cup of almost identical form, sold in our
Hong Kong rooms, 7th October 2019, lot 3102; another
slightly larger cup preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain
from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 303,
pl. 132; another of broader proportions with the reign mark
inscribed within a single circle, from the Avery Brundage
Collection, now preserved in the Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco, published on the Museum’s website (accession no.
B60P2365); and a similar pair published in The Tsui Museum
of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 126.
$ 80,000-120,000

56 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744 57