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A rare and massive pair of yellow-ground 'Da ya zhai' fishbowls Dayazhai three-character marks, Guangxu
Sold for £75,000
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A rare and massive pair of yellow-ground 'Da ya zhai' fishbowls
Each bowl carefully enamelled on the exterior in sepia tones with spreading leafy branches issuing heavy blossoms of tree peony and nandina sprays, surrounding an oval cartouche containing the three characters Da ya zhai encircled by two dragons pursuing the flaming pearl in iron-red, all reserved on a rich opaque yellow ground, the lipped rim with sixteen bats alternating with shou characters, wood stands. Each 53.3cm (21in) diam. (4).
Footnotes
This lot is being sold through the Alpha scheme.
清光緒 黃地墨彩花卉紋缸一對 礬紅「大雅齋」楷書款
The mark Dayazhai (Studio of the Greater Odes) has been associated with the Dowager Empress Cixi. Although no such hall has been identified, a wooden framed plaque has been found in the Imperial workshops, bearing the characters Dayazhai and with one of two seals reading Tiandi Yijia Chun: see Guo Xingkuan and Wang Guangyao, Guanyang Yuci, Beijing, 2007, pp.145-147. According to the authors, in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873) work began on the restoration of the Yuanming Yuan, and by 1874, the interior of the Tiandi Yijia Chun would have been in need of furnishing.
Rosemary Scott in her article For Her Majesty's Pleasure - Dayazhai Porcelain, published by Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, p.23, suggests that the new-style porcelains were not produced until the Guangxu reign, and by the second year of Guangxu, 4,922 porcelains had been produced bearing both Dayazhai and Tiandi Yijia Chun marks. As the restoration of the Yuanming Yuan had been halted for economic reasons, the vessels would have been delivered to the Forbidden City.
The ground colour yellow, as on this present lot, is probably the rarest to find on Da ya zhai ceramics, because of the long-established Imperial connotation of using yellow on objects and textiles associated with an Emperor or Empress.
Compare two similar pairs of large turquoise-ground fishbowls with Dayazhai marks sold in these rooms, 10 November 2011, lot 173 and 12 May 2011, lot 373.
Saleroom notices
This lot is being sold through the Alpha scheme.


