Page 61 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024

Exquisitely painted with the Eight Daoist Immortals The doucai style is ideally suited for rendering this scene
dressed in billowing robes illustrated crossing the of the Eight Immortals. A perfect harmony of delicately
rough sea after attending the Peach Festival of the pencilled underglaze-blue lines with vivid blocks of iron
Queen Mother of the West, these bowls testify to the red, yellow, green and aubergine endows the scene with
great developments in porcelain production during a sense of ethereality which is fitting to the subject.
the Yongzheng period. The precision of the cobalt Furthermore, the doucai style, which was originally
pencilled lines and shading captured on the robes of the probably referred to as wucai, ‘five colours’, and the
immortals reveals the refinement of the porcelain and clouds surrounding the immortals carry further symbolic
the craftsmen’s mastery of techniques and materials as meaning. ‘Rainbow-coloured’ or five-coloured clouds
a direct result of the Emperor’s keen patronage. (wuse yun) are considered highly auspicious portends
of good omens. According to Therese Tse Bartholomew,
Bowls of this type are rare and only four other pairs Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p.
of bowls are known: one pair was sold in these rooms, 105, clouds (yun) are used as a pun on the word ‘fortune’
20th November 1984, lot 501; another pair was sold at and are considered benevolent because of their power
Christie’s London, 4th December 1995, lot 153; the third to supply water. As seen on the present pair of bowls,
pair was sold twice at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st October auspicious rainbow-coloured clouds are often depicted
1994, lot 617, and again, 29th May 2007, lot 1462; and a in lingzhi (longevity fungus) shape, and the lingzhi itself
fourth pair formerly in the collection of Chutaro Nakano, has the form of the wish-granting ruyi (‘according to
sold three times in 2010, 2015 and most recently in these your wish’) sceptre. As Heir Apparent, the Yongzheng
rooms 9th October 2023, lot 3602. This motif is echoed Emperor had himself portrayed in clay wearing a coat
in the blue and white palette, such as a bowl, from the with five-coloured roundels over a cloud-decorated robe.
collection of Agatha and Irving Aronson, sold at Christie’s
New York, 21st-22nd March 2013, lot 1473; and another, The scene on these bowls depicts the story whereby
but the interior roundel depicting Shoulao and his deer, the Eight Immortals combined their powers to sail past
from the collection of Sir Harry Garner, illustrated in the tempest rather than travel by their clouds, alluding
Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, rev. ed. to the proverb baxian guo hai, ge xian shen tong (‘The
1971 (1951), pl. LX. Eight Immortals cross the sea, each revealing their divine
powers’). It is a lesson on how individual strengths and
The polychrome (doucai) colour scheme, where the gifts can be used together to tackle the same obstacle.
outline is drawn in underglaze blue and filled with washes This image grew in popularity after the Yongzheng
of underglaze blue and four different overglaze enamels, reign and was rendered in various different palettes; for
gained popularity with the Chenghua Emperor. The term example, see a pair of Daoguang mark and period puce
doucai, which refers to the interaction of the colours and underglaze-blue decorated bowls, from the Edward
(cai), is ambiguous since the term dou allows for the T. Chow collection, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1981,
colours to be characterised as clashing or matching. lot 530; and an exquisite pair of famille-rose decorated
Terms such as ‘contrasting’, ‘contending’, ‘interlocking’, jars and covers, with Qianlong reign marks and of the
‘joined’, and ‘dove-tailed’ have been suggested as period, sold twice at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st March
translations, the most satisfactory rendering perhaps 1992, lot 656, 1st May 1995, lot 675, and again in our New
being ‘completion of colours’ as used by Fang Chaoying York rooms, 17th March 2009, lot 124. See also a doucai
in his biographical entry on the Chenghua Emperor in L. bowl of larger size and broader foot decorated with the
Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds, Dictionary Eight Immortals depicted in a landscape, sold in these
of Ming Biography 1368-1644, New York, 1976, p. 302. rooms, 29th October 1991, lot 208.

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