Page 205 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art December 2, 2015 HK

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AN IRON-RED DECORATED ‘IMMORTALS’ BOWL

KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A
DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

The bowl is finely painted around the exterior in shades of iron-
red with fourteen Immortals and two deer highlighted with black
enamel, one figure conjuring a black and white crane from a double
gourd, also including Shoulao standing holding a staff and Dongfang
Shuo holding a peach branch over his shoulder, the Immortals
holding a root-wood staff, lingzhi scepter, bowl of fruits, fly-whisk
and two holding an open scroll with yin yang symbol, the details of
their faces, hair and clothes picked out in black enamel, the interior
with white glaze.
6 æ in. (17.2 cm.) diam., box

HK$1,500,000-2,000,000 US$200,000-260,000

A similar Immortal bowl with fourteen figures, one being an attendant,
all between underglaze-blue double-lines, from the Qing Court Collection,
Beijing, is illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours,
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong,
1999, pl. 118; and another was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society
exhibition Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, illustrated in
the Catalogue, no. 79.

Another Kangxi-marked bowl similarly decorated in iron red with fourteen
Immortals was offered at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 December 2008,
lot 2550.

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