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P. 98
91 The theme of beautiful women picking lotus flowers from a lake was
A large famille rose deep basin popular with poets, playwrights and artists in Imperial China as an
Yongzheng activity representing hedonistic pleasure at court. This stems from the
Finely enamelled with elegant palace ladies in boats plucking lotus story of King Fuchai of Wu (r. 495-473 BC) and his infatuation with
flowers from the lake while the Emperor looks on with pleasure beside the legendary beauty and femme fatale Xi Shi who plucked lotus on
his favourite concubine beneath a covered pavilion, the flat everted the lake. The King was so bewitched by her beauty that he neglected
lipped rim finely decorated with six cartouches containing peony, affairs of state, and his kingdom collapsed.
chrysanthemum or hibiscus on a lotus flowerhead ground stippled
with white magnolia and hibiscus. This motif would be employed again for the Tang Emperor Xuanzong
41.5cm (16 1/4in) diam. (685-762) who was also in love with another femme fatale, the Imperial
Consort Yang Guifei, who bathed at the Huaqing pool reserved for
£6,000 - 10,000 emperors and where lotus were placed to recreate the scene. The
HK$75,000 - 130,000 CNY59,000 - 99,000 emperor claimed that even the lotus was not as beautiful as his
concubine Yang Guifei. Yang Guifei’s influence in court eventually
清雍正 粉彩人物故事圖大盤 stirred the An Lushan rebellion, from which the Tang imperial family
would never completely recover.
Provenance 來源: a Swedish family collection, by repute
S.Marchant and Son Ltd., London (label) A famille verte rouleau vase with a similar design described as ‘The
Roy Davids Collection, no.87, acquired on 18 March 2011 Emperor Xuanzong standing beside Yang Guifei, the most beautiful
woman in China looking on at ladies picking lotus flowers’ is illustrated
A basin painted with a similar subject probably dating from the late by Wang Qingzheng in Kangxi Porcelain Ware from the Shanghai
Kangxi period, the bequest of Mr and Mrs J.C.J.Druker-Fraser, 1944, Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, no.127, pp.196-7.
is illustrated by C.J.A.Jorg in Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, no.174, p.159. A large Yongzheng dish
painted with a similar scene is illustrated by Dr.G.C.Williamson in The
Book of Famille Rose, Tokyo, 1927, pl.XLIV.
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