Page 186 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017

3633

A RARE PAIR OF FAMILLE-ROSE ‘DEER’ These bowls are notable for their delicate style of painting
BOWLS which reflects the innovative developments and fresh
MARKS AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG confidence of craftsmen working during the Yongzheng
Emperor’s reign. The new development of enamelling is
each well potted with deep rounded sides rising from a subtly evident in the use of pink and purple enamels, while the
splayed foot to a flared rim, the exterior finely enamelled with a painter’s skill is revealed in the lack of formal borders to
spotted deer with its head turned backwards, the scene further delineate the decorative elements of the design. Known
detailed with a crane perched on a gnarled aubergine-lavender as the ‘boneless style’, this technique was not widely used
pine branch and lingzhi blooms issuing from the ground, the for decorating porcelain most likely because it was too
interior picked out with two further lingzhi blooms, the base complicated to use on a mass-production scale. It represented
inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark in a great challenge to the artists as a lesser-skilled painter would
three columns in a double circle require outlines to complete their sections of decoration, and
9.3 cm, 3⅝ in. if not handled correctly it would give the impression that the
piece was unfinished.
PROVENANCE
Collection of an officer with the British forces in the ‘China Bowls painted with deer and cranes in this palette are rare and
Expeditionary Force’ in 1900-01, by repute. no other closely related bowl appears to have been published.
Left: Bonhams London, 11th November 2010, lot 318. A similarly painted deer, with a meticulously detailed fur coat,
Right: Bonhams London, 11th November 2010, lot 322. is found on a Yongzheng mark and period meiping in the
Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection
HK$ 1,200,000-1,500,000 of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné
US$ 155,000-194,000 Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong,
1999, pl. 50; and on a bowl sold in these rooms, 7th October
清雍正 粉彩鹿鶴同春盌一對 2015, lot 3635. Compare also a pair of Yongzheng mark and
《大清雍正年製》款 period ogee cups painted in a similar style with cranes and
pine trees, included in the exhibition Joined Colours, Arthur M.
來源： Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.,
傳英國軍官收藏，1900-01年間曾駐中國 1993, cat. no. 59, and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in 1996, in
左：倫敦邦翰斯2010年11月11日，編號318 our London rooms in 2001, and in these rooms, 7th October
右：倫敦邦翰斯2010年11月11日，編號322 2015, lot 3638; and another pair sold in these rooms, 29th
October 1991, lot 244.

Marks
184 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比