Page 73 - 2019 October Important Chinese Ceramics Sotheby's Hong Kong

his exquisite bowl is remarkable for its detailed rendering of the sanduo (three abundances) motif. Iron red, which adheres in a
thin, opaque layer, was masterfully utilised to capture the different textures of the fruits, from the ripe skin of the pomegranate
T and its dense array of seeds, to the leaves that bend in a highly naturalistic manner. Iron red was seldom used on its own prior to
the Yongzheng reign, when all the enamels available to the potters at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, were closely scrutinised to identify
their unique properties and possibilities.
Bowls painted with this motif in iron red are rare, and only another closely related example appears to be known: from the Meiyintang
collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 785, and sold in these
rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 5.
Sprays of fruiting pomegranate, peach and lychee represent a variation of the auspicious sanduo (‘three abundances’) motif, the lychee here
replacing the more common finger citron. The lychee and pomegranate are both harbingers of an abundance of offspring: a pomegranate
bursting with seeds expresses the wish for a hundred sons (liukai baizi), whilst the word for lychee (lizhi) is homophonous with
“establishing a son” (lizi). The peach is a fruit associated with the goddess Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, in whose orchard
peaches take 3,000 years to blossom and another to ripen, and hence peaches symbolise the wish for longevity.

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