Bonhams 1793 : An extremely rare blue and white 'lotus' vase Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period

27 May 2012 19:00 CST Hong Kong
Voyages of Discovery. A Connoisseur's Choice: Imperial Masterworks from a Private Portuguese Collection
Back to auction 20393

An extremely rare blue and white 'lotus' vase

Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period
Of cylindrical form with gently curved shoulders, the waisted neck rising to a lipped rim, the base supported on a short foot, the exterior vividly painted in rich tones of underglaze-blue with evenly-spaced stylised lotus blossoms issuing leafy stems, all beneath a classic scroll at the shoulder, the base inscribed in underglaze-blue with six-character mark within a double circle. 10.7cm high.

Sold for HK$ 560,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance:
Iver Munthe Daae collection, Norwegian official of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service 1867-1888
Sotheby's London, 13 July 2005, lot 169

For further information on Iver Munthe Daae, see lot 2.

The pair to the current lot, also from the collection of Iver Munthe Daae, is in the Museum of Decorative Art and Design, Oslo. The Yongzheng jarlet was part of a group of two hundred and seven pieces from his collection purchased by the museum when he returned to Norway in 1888. The identical piece was included in the exhibition Daae Samlingen in 1989, then later published and illustrated in Two Important Collections of Chinese Ceramics in Norway: The Daae and The Munthe Collections, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 2005-2006, Volume 70, p.54, fig.2 (fig.1).

Compare a similar blue and white jarlet with same size but different Ming-style decoration in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Mingchu Qinghuaci. Volume II, 2002, p.360, no.193. Another pair of similar Yongzheng reign-marked jarlets is illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci 2000 Nian Zhi Jinghua. Zhongguo Mingtao Zhan, Tokyo, 1992, p.120, no.134. See also a similar sized Yongzheng reign-marked blue and white jarlet with a thinner neck and of slight quatrelobed shape with boys at play motif in the Huaihaitang Collection, illustrated in Ethereal Elegance. Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing. The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, pp.272-273, no.91.

清雍正青花纏枝蓮紋燈籠小瓶「大清雍正年製」青花雙圈六字楷書款

瓶唇口，短頸微斂，豐肩，圓筒形器身，直腹，圈足。短圓頸下方繪卷雲紋一周，器身外壁通體飾青花纏枝蓮紋，朵朵蓮花在枝葉叢中綻放，鈷料色濃處出現黑色斑塊，爲人工點燃所致，青花色澤濃鬱艶麗却不失高雅氣息。其青花發色、釉面及紋飾皆仿明代永樂、宣德時期風格，顯露幾分古尚之風。

此瓶同樣來自挪威收藏家伊萬蒙克戴爾(Iver Munthe Daae)之收藏。伊萬舊藏中，與之匹配的另外一件青花纏枝蓮紋燈籠小瓶曾在1819年的展出並刊登於東方陶瓷學會學刊，詳見「Two Important Collections of Chinese Ceramics in Norway: The Daae and The Munthe Collections」，《Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 2005-2006, Volume 70》，頁54, 圖2。該瓶現藏於挪威國立奧斯陸藝術館（圖一）。

燈籠瓶因造型似燈籠而得名，由雍正時期景德鎮官窯創燒，至乾隆時期燈籠瓶式樣開始大量出現。北京故宮博物院藏一件清雍正青花錦紋花卉紋瓶，器形與大小與本瓶幾乎無差，詳見耿寶昌主編，《故宮博物院明初青花瓷下册》，頁260，圖版193。另見一對曾在東京國立博物館展出的清雍正青花番蓮小罐，與本件拍品相類，詳見林屋頃三編，《中國名陶展 - 中國陶瓷2000年之精華》，東京，1992年，頁120，圖版134。另外見懷海堂藏一件清雍正青花開光嬰戲圖燈籠尊，其大小及形制與本拍品基本一致，見香港中文大學編，《機暇清賞 - 懷海堂藏清代御窯瓷瓶》，頁272-273，圖版91。