Page 34 - Christie's July 9th 2020 Hong Kong Buddhist Art Under Empire

fig. 1 A blue and white Tibetan-style ewer. Kangxi period. fig. 2 A blue and white Tibetan-style ewer. Qianlong period.
Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖一 康熙青花奔巴壺 北京故宮博物院藏品 圖二 乾隆青花奔巴壺 北京故宮博物院藏品

2706 Continued

Ewers of this type belong to a group of porcelain ritual wares modelled Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain
after Tibetan metal prototypes that was specially commissioned by with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2010, p. 154, no. 140 (fig. 2),
the Qing Court for placement on Buddhist altars for ceremonial use respectively. Compare also with a Kangxi doucai Tibetan-style ewer
in palaces and temples either within the Forbidden Palace or the with a cover possibly replaced during the Qianlong period, illustrated
Bishushanzhuang in Chengde. Compare to two Qianlong famille rose in Gugong bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. 1-1, Beijing, 2005,
altar ornaments (lot 2717) and a Jiaqing simulated gold altar ornament pp. 200-201, no. 63 (fig. 3), which shares the same decoration as its
(lot 2716) also from this group in the present sale. contemporary blue and white ewer.
The present type of ewer is known as a ‘pure water ewer’ and was used The majority of the Qianlong Tibetan-style ewers are of the second
by monks to pour holy water into the cupped hands of the person to type, and are decorated in a variety of schemes, see for example, four
be blessed. Two styles of these ewers were made during the Qianlong variously decorated ewers in the National Palace Museum, formerly
period, one with a slender silhouette including a pagoda-form cover, kept at the Bishushanzhuang in Chengde, illustrated in Monarchy and
which first appeared during the Kangxi period; the other with a canopy- Its Buddhist Way: Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National
style mouth like the present example, which first appeared during the Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pp. 188-189, no. 95 (fig. 4).
Qianlong period, and retained its popularity through the Jiaqing period.
Compare a Kangxi and a Qianlong blue and white Tibetan-style ewer of Only two other Qianlong doucai ewers sharing the same decoration as
the first type in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with the Qianlong example the present ewer appear to be known, one is in the Asian Art Museum
showing close resemblance in form to its predecessor but painted on of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li, Chinese Ceramics, London, 1996,
the body of the exterior with the Eight Buddhist Emblems supported no. 162; the other was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 March 1992, lot
on lotus blooms instead of a tasselled garland with lion masks, see 626, which has restoration to the spout and small beaded areas.
Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum
Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 26, no. 9 (fig. 1), and The Complete

31