Page 392 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

ANOTHER PROPERTY
1386
A RARE SMALL RUBY-ENAMELED BOWL
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE
AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The bowl is fnely potted with rounded sides supported on a straight foot ring.
The exterior is covered with an even, rich, ruby enamel stopping neatly at the foot.
4¡ in. (10.9 cm.) diam.

$80,000-120,000
This elegant and refned bowl represents the extraordinary technical ability and speed of development in
Chinese porcelain manufacture and decoration in the eighteenth century. This ruby-colored enamel was
originally developed in Europe, and can be seen on wares produced at Meissen and Sèvres, but Chinese
craftsmen were able to make signifcant improvements: through the use of ground ruby glass, as well as
reducing the proportion of colloidal gold and the amount of tin in the mixture, they created a more stable
and even product which surpassed the European versions of this enamel. On the present bowl, the result is
a striking, rich color which is only enhanced by the simplicity of the form.

The refnement of this new ruby color lead in turn to one of the most striking innovations in the Chinese
decorative vocabulary: the development of palette known as famille rose in the West, and as fencai (pale
colors), yangcai (foreign colors) or falangcai (enamel colors) in Chinese.
Qianlong-marked small bowls or cups such as the present lot are rarer than Yongzheng-marked examples.
Compare, however, a related bowl and cover from the Zhuyuetang Collection, included in the exhibition
Shimmering Colours. Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods: the Zhuyuetang Collection, Art Museum,
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2005, cat. no. 51, and a related cup with straighter sides
which was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st June 2011, lot 3539.
For related Yongzheng-marked ruby-enameled wares, see a bowl included in an exhibition organized by
the National Museum of History, Taipei, and illustrated in the commemorative catalogue Zhongguo ming
tao Riben xunhui zhan [Travelling exhibition in Japan of famous Chinese ceramics], Taipei, 1993, p. 177; see,
also, a ruby-enameled bowl with a fared rim, and a ruby-backed dish, both Yongzheng marks and of the
period, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of New York, and illustrated by S. Valenstein,
A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 252, nos. 255 and 256, respectively.
清乾隆 胭脂紅釉小盌 六字篆書款

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