Page 41 - Sotheby's Imperial Chiense Porcelain Nov 4 2020 London

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PROPERTY FROM AN IRISH PRIVATE COLLECTION This magnificent moonflask is representative of some of the
A RARE LARGE GE-TYPE MOONFLASK most challenging porcelain shapes, sizes and glazes made
YONGZHENG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD under the reign of the Yongzheng emperor. The simplicity of its
form and glaze is deceptive as it made the greatest demands
the octagonal body rising from a rectangular splayed foot to on the technical skills that only the most sophisticated and
a tall cylindrical neck flanked by a pair of openwork archaistic experienced potters working in the Imperial workshops
handles, covered entirely with an unctuous creamy-grey glaze could handle. In form and glaze it embodies the Yongzheng
suffused with a matrix of grey and golden crackles, the footrim emperor’s fascination with antiquity and his passion for
covered in a dark brown slip, the base inscribed with a six- archaism. Both its form and glaze are borrowed from sources
character seal mark in underglaze blue in Chinese antiquity which under Yongzheng’s demands served
Height 48.5 cm, 19⅛ in. as a source of inspiration for innovation. From the first year
of his reign, the Yongzheng emperor commissioned items
PROVENANCE from the Palace Workshops, whose output changed in nature
Battersby & Co., Dublin, lot 89 (according to label). as a result. Simplicity of form and absence of decoration
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner and thence were stylistic trends introduced by Tang Ying (1682-1756),
in the family by descent. Superintendent of the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. Under his
supervision, research into celebrated Song wares such as
£ 150,000-250,000 Ru, Guan, Ge and Jun saw the re-emergence of monochrome
porcelains covered in luminous yet deceptively simple
清雍正 仿哥釉八方雙耳抱月瓶 glazes which were made to simulate earlier wares on both
contemporary and archaistic forms.
《大清雍正年製》款
The unctuous crackled creamy-grey glaze that covers the
entire surface of this moonflask was made in imitation of
來源 Ge ware, one of the ‘Five Great Wares’ of the Song dynasty
都柏林Battersby & Co., 編號89（標簽） (960-1279). During the Yongzheng reign, porcelain shapes
此抱月瓶由現任藏家祖父所得，此後家族傳承 were developed and made that were rooted in antiquity or
uniquely conceived. These deceptively simple yet technically
challenging archaistic shapes were then used as the basis for
one of the Song-inspired glazes, in this case a Ge-type glaze.
The present octagonal flak retains only a basic relationship
to the original form, an archaic bronze bianhu. The potter
who conceived the shape of the present vase rejuvenated
the form, maintaining the original faintly elliptical, circular
outline of the archaic flask and combining it with the angular
planes of an octagon. The new shape was then covered with a
Ge-type glaze, successfully mixing contemporary and archaic
aesthetics.
Vases of this impressive size and unusual shape are rare.
One closely related flask, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is
published in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl.
172; another example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd
December 2015, lot 3104; and a third vase of this shape, size
and glaze, possibly the pair to the present moonflask, was sold
at Bonhams London, 17th May 2012, lot 303.

78 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right 79
(which will depend on the individual circumstances). Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.