Page 18 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art 09/13/17
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ABSTRACT ARCHAISM
TWO RARE TURQUOISE
ENAMELED BOWLS FROM
AN AMERICAN PRIVATE
COLLECTION
During the Qing dynasty, archaic bronze forms and sold in our London rooms, 9th July 1974, lot 345; and
designs were an important source of inspiration in the another, from the Meiyintang Collection, included
production of Imperial porcelain. Occasionally, as with in the exhibition Evolution to Perfection. Chinese
the present example, archaistic designs on porcelain Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution
appear on shapes and styles that are otherwise vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection
completely unrelated to early bronze vessels. Meiyintang, Sporting d’Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996,
Archaistic dragon forms are here stylized to such a cat. no. 193 and illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese
degree that they are recognizable mainly through Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London,
the accompanying leiwen background pattern, which 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 911, and sold in our Hong Kong
unmistakably refers to archaic bronze decoration. rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 9; a further bowl was sold
twice at Christie’s, rst in London, 3rd December 1973,
Only a relatively small numbers of bowls of this type lot 339, and then in Hong Kong, 30th November 2011,
are known. Compare a closely related example in lot 2928, and is also illustrated in Anthony du Boulay,
the collection of Brian McElney, included in the Min Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese Art, Oxford,
Chiu Society exhibition Monochrome Ceramics of 1984, p. 222, g. 6; and another, from the Yiqingge
the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th May
of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 53. See also a bowl 2013, lot 2021.
Compare also a larger bowl with incised leiwen only
under a similar pastel-turquoise enamel, also of
Yongzheng mark and period, in the Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong
Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from
the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum
collection], Beijing, 2005, vol. I, part 2, pl. 211.
The present bowls were acquired by Donald L.
Ballantyne (1895-1974) ( g. 1), who worked for Chase
Bank in Asia in the early 20th century and is known to
have lived in Tianjin, Beijing and Hong Kong, where the
present bowls were likely acquired. He and his family
returned to the US in 1942 following the Japanese
invasion of Hong Kong, and the bowls have remained
with the family since.
Fig. 1 Donald L. Ballantyne (right), photographed with his
family in Asia, circa 1935
16 SOTHEBY’S
