Page 13 - Sotheby's Dr. Wou Kiuan Collection CHINESE ART , Oct. 9, 2022

Fig.2 An imperial yellow-ground yangcai 'trigrams' reticulated vase, seal
mark and period of Qianlong, made in the 9th year of the Qianlong reign
(1744), Qing court collection, National Palace Museum, Taipei
圖二 清乾隆九年（1744年） 御製洋彩黃錦地乾坤交泰轉旋瓶
《大清乾隆年製》款 清宮舊藏 台北故宮博物院

This, however, was not all. The imperial reprimand must have raised serious alarms with
Tang and his potters, who knew that they had to come up with something out of the 雍正末年（1723-35年），御窰在風格、
ordinary to recover lost grace. According to Liao Pao Show, the seventh year of Qianlong, 樣式、釉彩等各方面均有所成就，種類五花
1742, marks a turning point for yangcai ceramics, the exceptional porcelains made at 八門，技術精益求精，彷彿藝已臻極，無可
Jingdezhen for the court, mainly between 1741 and 1744 (Liao Baoxiu, Huali cai ci: Qianlong 超越。乾隆御窰陶人定必費煞思量，萬覓千
尋，才能找到啟迪。如借鑑元代（1271-
yangcai/Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 39). These few years saw an unprecedented and unparalleled 1368年）浙江龍泉窰已有的鏤空之技，惟
昔時質甚粗糙，但對清代景德鎮匠人而言，
culmination of technical virtuosity in porcelain production. 則應該沒有太大難度。

By the end of the preceding Yongzheng period (1723-35), the manufactories had already 此前，轉旋與交泰設計在陶瓷上雖聞所未
explored such a vast spectrum of styles, designs and colours and reached such a level of 聞，卻在玉雕中有跡可尋，其工藝程序也甚
technical refinement, that it must have seemed virtually impossible to venture beyond; 是繁複。相信為記錄雍正帝御藏所繪之〈古
so, the potters had to search far and wide for inspiration. Openwork had already been 玩圖卷〉二軸，便有載此類玉器，圖見康蕊
君，〈乾隆以前的中國玉雕〉，《伍夫收藏
accomplished much earlier, for example, at the much coarser celadons of the Longquan 中國玉器》，倫敦，2013年，頁52及58，
kilns of Zhejiang province in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). This probably did not pose too
圖8 a 及 b。欲得交泰轉心瓷，必須分段
many problems for Jingdezhen’s potters. 製作，反覆以不同溫度燒成。初造瓷胎，期
間坯土受熱收縮，然後添施彩料，再行入窰
燒就，過程講究，極具挑戰性，曠古未有。
藝匠掌握了分段與交泰的燒造技術後，或許
轉旋便順理成章地成為下一個目標。次年
（1743年）窰匠已成功燒造轉旋瓷器，並
上進首批作品，包括一件與此瓶吻合之品。

24 A JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA’S HISTORY THE DR WOU KIUAN COLLECTION PART II