Page 59 - 2018 Hong Kong Important Chieese Art

This elegant moonflask assumes an immediate sense of collections, sold in our London rooms, 2nd April 1974, lot 369,
familiarity through the meticulously rendered design and form, and twice in these rooms, 31st October 1995, lot 325, and
both of which are made to replicate historical masterpieces 7th April 2011, lot 76; another sold in our London rooms, 21st
of the early Ming dynasty. Created during the reign of the June 1983, lot 313; and a fourth example sold in our New York
Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-1735), it reflects the Emperor’s rooms, 1st December 1992, lot 339. Smaller examples include
utmost respect for the nation’s glorious past and the one sold in these rooms, 28th April 1992, lot 115; another,
remarkable technical development achieved at the imperial attributed to the 18th century, from the A.C.J. Wall collection,
kiln at Jingdezhen during his reign. Under the guidance of the sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2006, lot 305;
great Superintendent Tang Ying (1682-1756), the potters were and a third sold in these rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1371,
able to absorb and emulate the distinctive qualities of early and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd June 2015, lot 3126,
Ming prototype as evident on the use of cobalt on the present from the Leshantang collection, illustrated in The Leshantang
piece, which has been carefully applied in imitation of the Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Taipei, 2005, pl. 29.
characteristic ‘heaping and piling’ effect of the originals.
In form and decoration, the present piece closely copies a
Compare a Yongzheng moonflask of this type in the National Yongle prototype of which only one example appears to be
Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition extant, from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in
Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle the British Museum, London, illustrated in Regina Krahl and
Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, pl. 158; Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics. Highlights of the Sir
one from the Richard de la Mare, Su Lin An and Meiyintang Percival David Collection, London, 2009, no. 28, p. 61.

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 57