Page 57 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017

fig. 2
Anonymous court artists, Pictures of Ancient Playthings, ink and colours on paper, handscroll, detail,
Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
© The Trustees of the British Museum
was not matched again even in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911),
when these designs were frequently copied, particularly in the
Yongzheng (1723-35) and Qianlong (1736-95) eras.
Although very well executed examples with red glaze
decoration such as the present piece are known from the
Xuande period, the numbers remained very small and more
examples may have been destroyed than were deemed
successful and preserved. Many deliberately broken stem
cups, stem bowls and cups with red fish, red fruit, red dragons
or other sea creatures, all of Xuande mark and period, have
been recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial
kiln site (some of them included in the exhibitions Imperial
Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from
the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong
Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. nos 55, 75 and 76, and
Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao ciqi/Xuande Imperial
Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei,
1998, cat. nos. 45-1 and 2, 46-1 and 2, 49-1 and 2, 101-1, 2 and
3, and F 9). Attempts were also made to replace the copper-
red with an overglaze iron red, which, however, equally did not
always yield the desired result (e.g. cat. no. 77 in the former
catalogue, cat. no. 48-1 in the latter).
The present piece, with its generous, deep cup shape, is a
particularly rare example. Only one companion piece appears
to be recorded, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
published in Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te
Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no.
87 (fig. 1), together with a ‘red fruit’ example of the same form, (1910-80) and T.Y. Chao (1912-99). Edward Chow, a
cat. no. 86, as well as smaller and more shallow stem cups with
three copper-red fishes, cat. no. 81, with three iron-red fishes,
cat. no. 82, as well as stem bowls with the same copper-red
fruit or fish design, cat. nos 98 and 99; another smaller ‘red
fish’ stem cup was included in the Museum’s exhibition Ming
Xuande ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of
Hsuan-te Period Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei,
1980, cat. no. 124, where it is illustrated together with a later
copy, cat. no. 126, as well as later copies of ‘fruit’ stem cups,
cat. nos 125 and 127.
The Palace Museum, Beijing, also holds only a smaller and
more shallow stem cup of this design, see The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and
White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol.
1, pl. 226, with a detail on p. 246; another smaller example
in the Shanghai Museum is published in Lu Minghua,
Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the
Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs.
Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai,
2007, pl. 3-52; and one from the Eumorfopoulos Collection
in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated in Daisy
Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, col. pl. 61;
another stem cup of this smaller form, from the collection
of Allen J. Mercher, the Chang Foundation, Taipei, and the
Chunzaizhai Collection, illustrated in James Spencer (comp.),
Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang
Foundation, Taipei, 1990, cat. no. 90, was sold in our New York
rooms, 2nd November 1956, lot 223; and in these rooms 14th
November 1983, lot 126, and 8th October 2014, lot 3001.
A ‘three fish’ stem cup of the same deep shape as the present
piece is also depicted in one of the Guwantu [Pictures of
Antiquities] among other items in the imperial collection in the
Yongzheng period, its stem firmly locked in a tall wooden stand
to keep it safe. The scroll, dated in accordance with AD 1728,
is preserved in the British Museum from the Sir Percival David
Collection and was sold in our London rooms, 19th May 1939,
lot 62; see the exhibition catalogue China. The Three Emperors
1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005-6, cat. no.
168 top left (fig. 2). The Yongzheng Emperor also appears to
have commissioned copies of this design, where the fishes,
however, often show a less attractive liver-red colour.
The present stem cup comes from two of the most remarkable
collections of Chinese ceramics, those of Edward T. Chow
connoisseur-dealer who had worked in Shanghai and Hong
Kong before settling in Switzerland, had furnished and helped
to shape some of the most important collections of Chinese
art, such as those of Sir Percival David, Barbara Hutton, King
Gustav Adolf of Sweden, J.M. Hu, or Ataka Eiichi. The three
sales of his personal collection at Sotheby’s Hong Kong and
London in 1980 and 1981 remain among the most remarkable
and successful auctions of Chinese art, which exerted a
strong influence on the art market in Hong Kong. One of the
most eager buyers at these sales was T.Y. Chao, a shipping
magnate, who clearly took Edward T. Chow as a model
in forming his own collection. When the T.Y. Chao Family
collection was sold in these rooms in 1986, it echoed the Chow
sales of a few years earlier.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 55