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A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 1
A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 2
A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 3
A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 4
A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 5
A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period image 6
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
Lot 22

A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL
Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period

Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art including the Francine and Bernard Wald Collection of Fine Snuff Bottles, Part I
17 March 2025, 09:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$102,100 inc. premium

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A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL

Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in black enamel within double square and of the period
Elegantly potted, the deeply sloping sides rising from a circular foot to a flared rim, decorated on the exterior with four stylized flowers, their petals superbly drawn and delicately painted in shades of pink and white enclosing a black enamel center, each flower exuding its own leafy foliage with budding florets, the four blossoms set against a bright yellow ground with the base and interior unglazed, the four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark rendered in black enamel within a double square.
5 1/8in (13cm) diam

Footnotes

清康熙 《康熙御製》雙方框黑款 珍罕琺瑯彩蓮紋盌

No other falangcai bowl of this design on an Imperial yellow ground is known to date with its black enamel use in the center of the blooms, delicate rendering and shading of the tendrils and leaves and in the black enameled Kangxi yuzhi mark on the base. This bowl represents an early stage in the technical developments achieved in the falangcai Imperial Workshop of the Kangxi period, established in 1693. The Kangxi emperor's fascination with innovative technology motivated him to establish bespoke Imperial workshops in the Forbidden City, staffed with the best creative craftsmen in China and Jesuit missionaries well-versed in the latest technological developments. The use of colloidal gold, likely introduced from Europe to achieve the deep rose-shaded pink, together with the lead arsenate white enamel mixed with other colors created the superb pastel shades in the blossoms, leaves and tendrils of the present lot. The use of black enamel in the reign mark appears unique in falangcai publications to date, to be found on a few enamel on copper examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing and in the Taipei Palace Museum. See Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, vol 5, Painted Enamels in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pl. 10 and 11.

A small number of yellow-ground falangcai bowls exist in Museum collections and have appeared at auction. See one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 5, another in the British Museum, Percival David Collection, and published in Rosemary Scott, Illustrated Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Ware in the Percival Davi Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1991, pl. A806, and two bowls in the National Palace Museum exhibition publication Ch'ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Taipei, 1992, catalog nos. 3 and 4.

A falangcai yellow-ground floral bowl with a pink enameled Kangxi yuzhi mark was sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014; see also Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 November 1978, lot 369, another 12-13 May 1976, lot 364; and one from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat, sold 15 November 1988, lot 48. For a coral ground 'peony' bowl painted with blossoms on a yellow field, see Christie's, Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2727.

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