Page 61 - Christie's Important Chinese Art, March 23 to 24 2023 New York

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ⱷ1060
AN EXQUISITE AND VERY RARE SMALL DOUCAI MOON FLASK
YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)
An apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark is inscribed in underglaze blue
on the exterior of the mouth.
7 in. (17.8 cm.) high, cloth box

$150,000-250,000
PROVENANCE:
Important Japanese collection, acquired prior to 1970.
This very rare moon flask is exquisitely decorated with a continuous prunus
branch overhanging a stream. There appears to be only one similar moon
flask known, in the Percival David Foundation collection, illustrated in
Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, volume 7, The Percival David
Foundation of Chinese Art, Tokyo, 1976, no. 92. (Fig. 1) The Percival David
example is of nearly identical size, and bears a similarly-rendered apocryphal
Chenghua mark, but is decorated with a flowering peach branch.

The delicate enamels and design of this moon flask are reminiscent of
Chenghua porcelains, and these factors, combined with the apocryaphal
Chenghua mark, are all representative of the antiquarian interests of the
Yongzheng Emperor, who was known to have passionately collected and
studied material from earlier dynasties. In a discussion of the Percival David
moon flask, Stacey Pierson notes that the design is taken from the luo hua
liu shui (falling flowers on flowing water) motif found on Ming dynasty poetry
and painting (see S. Pierson, Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese
Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 51) further solidifying the connection between the
present moon flask and Chenghua prototypes is an example of a Chenghua- Fig. 1 Pilgrim flask, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735). British Museum,
marked doucai cup with the same luo hua liu shui motif excavated at PDF,A.733. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Jingdezhen published by R. Scott, “Further Discoveries from the Imperial Kiln 鬥彩花枝流水紋抱月瓶
清雍正
૯英博ḵ館藏
館藏編號1%'
"
© ૯英博ḵ館П〥基金
Site at Jingdezhen,” Orientations, vol. 23, no. 4, April 1992, p. 55, fig. 25. This
cup is the only known Chenghua-period example decorated with this motif.

清雍正ǎ鬥彩過枝梅抱月瓶
Ϝ源
重要日本珍藏
Ն藏於 年ע