Page 63 - March 23, 2022 Sotheby's NYC Fine Chinese Works of Art

269
AN EXTREMELY RARE ‘YANGCAI’ 清乾隆 黃地洋彩描金蓮紋鏤空壽字紋
RETICULATED REVOLVING VASE 如意獸耳轉心瓶
SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG 《大清乾隆年製》款
the base with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue (2)
Height 14¾ in., 37.5 cm
來源
紐約私人收藏
PROVENANCE
New York Private Collection.
$ 50,000-70,000

This extraordinary vessel is a tour de force of the technical with openwork designs of garden scenes enclosed in four
perfection achieved by the Jingdezhen craftsmen during the medallions and formalized flower patterns in the background,
Qianlong reign (1736-1795). Yangcai vases of this type, with illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain
rotating sections and pierced panels revealing a differently from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 435,
decorated inner core, would probably have presented one of no. 117.
the greatest technical challenges to the imperial kilns. They For porcelains with related reticulated designs, see a
required the utmost mastery and precision in the designing, baluster vase preserved in the Shanghai Museum, painted
shaping, firing and painting processes, combining underglaze with formalized flowers against a yellow ground above a
blue on the inside with overglaze enamels on the outside, band of blue-and-white flower scrolls similar to those on the
so that only an extremely small group was successfully present piece, the main body adorned with an openwork of
produced. As special commissions of the Qianlong Emperor, diaper and four medallions, illustrated in Zhou Lili, Qingdai
these fascinating vases are unique in design. The present Yongzheng-Xuantong guanyao ciqi / Qing Dynasty Official
piece is however a particularly rare example, with three, Wares from the Yongzheng to the Xuantong Reign, Shanghai,
instead of the more typical two, different sections that rotate 2014, p. 308, fig. 5-41; and a bell container in the Palace
against each other, further adding to the complexity of the Museum, Beijing (accession no. gu-152398), decorated
production process. Compare, for example, a double-gourd with yellow-ground flower and pierced diaper patterns
vase with two revolving sections, preserved in the Palace comparable to the middle section of this piece, illustrated in
Museum, Beijing (accession no. gu-154806), the lower body
the Museum’s publication, op. cit., p. 426, no. 108.

122 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10917 123