A SMALL RARE FAMILLE ROSE-ENAMELLED GLASS MINIATURE VASE

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Appreciating Elegance: Art from the Sui Yuan Zhai Collection Rosemary Scott, International Academic Director, Asian Art The Sui Yuan Zhai Collection has been amassed with great care over the past decade by connoisseurs who have exhibited an enthusiastic and evolving interest in the Chinese decorative arts. The collectors are a husband and wife team based in Hong Kong with a special interest in imperial works of art from the Ming and Qing dynasties. They have amassed nearly ninety pieces, chosen for their fine quality and rarity. Both came from prominent families who had a keen interest in Chinese art, and thus an appreciation of colour, form and historical importance was instilled at an early age. In part the accumulation of the collection has been a response to that early exposure to art, combined with a passionate desire to delve further into the art and culture of China. Once they determined to form a collection, these enthusiasts sought advice and guidance from curators, specialists and respected dealers in the field. The majority of the pieces in the collection were purchased from international auction houses and reputable dealers, and many have additional provenance. These collectors selected their works of art with an eye to the accumulation of beautiful and historically significant pieces. The collection concentrates on two materials which have long been associated with Chinese culture and Chinese connoisseurship – jade and porcelain. The jades include fine pieces of different colours and styles. A jade colour which is especially esteemed by collectors is spinach-green, and amongst the jades in the current collection is a rare archaistic vessel of this colour [Lot 25]. This is the complex four-legged vessel known as a tulu. Such containers were essentially rectangular in form but with a cylindrical column at each corner, and for those vessels where the lid has been preserved, as in this case, it is of conforming shape. Tulu were based on earlier bronze vessels and reflect the Qing court’s interest in antiquities. The jade containers were used to hold artists’ materials. Coloured pigments were kept in the four cylindrical compartments at the corners, subdivided using wooden strips. In the central compartment a saucer and water for mixing the colours were kept. Similar examples of jade tulu dating to the Qianlong reign are still preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum - for example those illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, vol. 6, Hebei, 1991, pls. 89 and 90. One of the rarest and most sought-after jade colours is that of the elegant twin-handled vase [Lot 28] which is of a soft yellow tone. This particular yellow is often referred to by Chinese connoisseurs as qiukui ‘autumn mallow’. Although the qiukui (Abelmoschus manihot) is sometimes called ‘yellow hibiscus’ it is now classified as a mallow. The plant has been greatly appreciated by artists since Song times and its delicate yellow colour much admired. The lustrous texture of the jade used to make this vase combines beautifully with the tone and is redolent of warm autumn colours. The main body of the vase has been left undecorated to allow better appreciation of the stone, while the handles are carved in the archaistic form popular at the time. A carved pale celadon table screen in the collection has a particularly beautiful carving of Laozi riding a water buffalo through mountainous terrain and being greeted from the far side of a bridge by an official [Lot 18]. The scene depicted on the screen is known as ‘Laozi chu guan’. In the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) written by Sima Qian (c. 145-86 BC), it is stated that Laozi came from the county of Hu in the State of Qu. He cultivated the Dao and its virtue, and his teachings encouraged withdrawal from the world and the avoidance of fame. He lived in the State of Zhou for some time, but when he observed the corruption of its rulers, he left. When he reached the pass at the westernmost border of the empire, the Superintendent of the Pass, Yin Xi, realised that Laozi was going to retire from the world and asked him to write down his philosophical teachings. This he did in some five thousand characters, divided into two parts, which discussed ‘the Dao and virtue’. Then Laozi left and was never seen again. In the Lie Xian Zhuan (Biographies of Immortals) edited by Liu Xiang ( 77-6 BC) it is recorded that: ‘Laozi travelled westward. The Chief of the (Hangu) Outpost Yin Xi saw purple vapour above the gate, and Laozi passing through it on a blue buffalo.’ The lapidary who carved the current screen has clearly shown not only the mountainous landscape of the western borders, but also the vaporous cloud. Depictions of Laozi on his buffalo leaving the empire appear in a number of different media. An evocative painting by Zhang Lu (c. 1490-1563) is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. There is, in addition, a famous Song dynasty embroidery, also in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, to which the Qianlong Emperor added inscriptions in 1759 and 1760, when it was in his collection. This embroidery is discussed and illustrated in Zhongguo zhixiu fushi quanji, vol. 2, Beijing, 2004, pp. 100-1, no. 77. The Song dynasty embroidery appears to have provided the model for a kesi of the same subject, which was woven on the orders of the Qianlong emperor at some time between 1790 and 1799. This kesi is preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, while another very similar Qianlong embroidered hanging scroll was offered by Christie’s London, 11 July, 2006, lot 62. It is clear that this was a subject which was especially close to the heart of the Qianlong emperor. While the majority of the ceramics in the Sui Yuan Zhai Collection date to the Qing dynasty, there are also significant pieces dating to the preceding Ming dynasty and the succeeding Republican period. An imposing Ming dynasty blue and white meiping with Wanli mark and of the period [Lot 13] is interesting not only for its large size, but also for the comparison that can be made between it and meiping excavated in the 1950s from the tomb of the Wanli emperor. The emperor’s tomb contained relatively few ceramic pieces, but did contain eight blue and white meiping. Two of the Ding Ling meiping are smaller, but six are of similar size to the current vase. Details of these are published in Ding Ling, Beijing, 1990, vol. 1, nos. 87 and 88, and vol. 2, pp. 183-4, figs. 289 A and B, and 290. Interestingly some of the Ding Ling vases are decorated in very similar style to the current vase. The shoulder and lower decorative bands are identical, while the main decorative band contains dragons amongst floral scrolls in place of the phoenixes amongst clouds on the current vase. The quality of the blue and of the painting appears to be very similar to the current vase and those from the Wanli Emperor’s tomb. A rare flask from the Yongzheng reign has a spectacular flambé glaze [Lot 8], which owes its development to imperial enthusiasm for new ceramic glaze colours, combined with the skills of an exceptional kiln director. In the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign [1728] a member of the Imperial household Department, Tang Ying was sent to Jingdezhen as assistant resident, and from then onwards the major responsibility for imperial porcelain fell to him. He took over official responsibility as Director of the kilns in 1936. Tang is the most famous and was the most skilled ceramicist of all the kiln directors, and it was probably under his supervision that the dramatic flambé glaze was developed. The inspiration for this glaze was almost certainly the splashed purple and blue glazes of Jun wares of the Song and Jin dynasties. However, although the Song dynasty potters had been able to produce the blue, purple and khaki glaze effects using only a single glaze with copper applied to its surface in places, the Qing potters has to devise different glazes with different consistencies which would fire at the same temperature in order to produce the required blue and purple exterior and the khaki base. In some cases cobalt also had to be added in order to get the required blue tones. Enormous amounts of experimentation would have been undertaken before they succeeded in achieving the final result, but the current vase is testament to the triumph of these endeavours. Tang Ying was famous for his success in creating glazes on imperial porcelain which imitated those of the Song dynasty, and another vessel in the current collection is an example of this success. This is the vessel made up of four conjoined cylindrical vases, which are covered in a blue-grey crackled glaze strongly resembling ancient Ge ware [Lot 10]. The other interesting feature of this vessel is the fact of it being made up of four similarly-shaped vases. The notion of producing ceramic vessels by joining two or more elements of the same shape can be seen in China as early as the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), when vases were made in the form of two confronted fish. This was a popular Tang vessel shape and there are surviving examples with white glaze, sancai glaze and Yue celadon glaze. An example of the latter is in the Percival David Foundation and is illustrated by R. Scott in Imperial Taste – Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1989, pp. 18-9, no. 1. In the Ming dynasty the theme of conjoined shapes was taken up again among blue and white decorated porcelains, as exemplified by the famous Longqing (AD 1567-72) double lozenge boxes (one of which is illustrated by Ryoichi Fujioka and Gakuji Hasebe in Sekai Toji Zenshu 14 Ming, Shogakukan, Tokyo, 1976, p. 208, no. 218). The popularity of these ‘multiple’ vessels reached its peak, however, in the Qing dynasty – noticeably in the Yongzheng reign and more particularly in the reign of the Qianlong emperor, whose love of novelty was surpassed only by his insistence on technical perfection. This technical expertise can be seen in a different form on a moon flask in the current collection, which is decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze iron red enamel [Lot 15]. The contrast between the areas decorated in soft underglaze cobalt blue and those painted in delicate, but vibrant, overglaze iron red enamel is extremely effective. The shading and fine details on the iron red flowers and birds’ feathers display the great skill of the painter. The decorative scheme which placed two descending confronted phoenixes on either side of a large peony blossom, with a flaming pearl above their heads seems to have been favoured in the Qianlong reign for application of moon flasks with underglaze and overglaze decoration. Two moon flasks decorated with similar designs, but with the phoenixes and peony blossoms in overglaze pink enamel, rather than iron red, are known. One is in the Matsuoka Art Museum in Tokyo (illustrated by J. Ayers and M. Sato in Sekai toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Qing, tokyo, 1983, pp. 83-4, pls. 92 and 93). The other, formerly in the Shorenstein Collection, was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong , 1st December, 2010, lot 2968. A large bottle vase with a design of dragon and phoenix amongst peony scrolls executed in doucai technique [Lot 32] is a rare example of bold decoration in this style used in the Qing period. It is more usual to find 18th century Qing doucai vessels with decoration composed of closely-grouped smaller elements, while the dragon, phoenix and flowering peony scrolls are all large in scale on this vase, and have ample white space around them. This shows the design to its best advantage. An 18th century doucai vase of similar size decorated with a pair of phoenixes amongst peony scrolls was sold by Christie’s New York, 13 September, 2012, lot 1515. However a large doucai bottle vase with flared mouth rim decorated with dragon and phoenix is in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art (accession number C1985.0006). The current vase also shares decorative features with a large doucai lidded meiping from the Qing Court collection preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing. This meiping is decorated with dragon and phoenix amongst peony scrolls in similar style to the current bottle vase. The meiping is illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 38, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 285, no. 260, where it is dated to the Jiaqing reign. A large Qianlong gang bowl in the current collection is painted with particular delicacy using the famille rose enamel palette [Lot 35]. The ceramic decorator has utilised great skill in devising large, wonderfully exotic, blooms which are scattered over the sides of the vessel and are punctuated by smaller four-petalled blossoms in iron red and blue. The whole design is connected by a series of delicately-painted featherlike leaves in a range of soft greens. The style of painting used for the larger flowers makes particularly good use of the opaque white enamel which was developed as part of the famille rose or fencai palette. This opaque white, which was created using lead arsenate as the opacifier, allowed the ceramic decorator to create delicate pastel shades by mixing the white with other colours, such as the colloidal gold pink, which gives famille rose its name. As can be seen on the current bowl, it also allowed the decorator to apply colours over the white and achieve very sophisticated shading. Two other important enamel colours, which were significant additions to the famille rose palette also contribute greatly to the beauty of the painting on this vessel. These are the pure opaque yellow, which was produced using lead-stannate, and the clear purple, which was achieved by grinding up pink enamel and putting it into a blue matrix. All these colours have been used with great skill to produce flowers which are both delicate and visually striking. A pair of double moon flask vases in the collection boast not only a rare shape and a rare mark, but also have fascinating provenance [Lot 36]. On the base of each double vase is a mark reading: Jing yuan tang (Hall of Tranquillity and Remoteness). This was the hall name of Xu Shichang, who served as President of the Republic of China in Beijing from October 1918 to June 1922. Porcelains with this mark are very rare, and no other vases of this shape bearing this mark appear to be published. The vases were previously owned by the Empress Dowager of Japan, who had the posthumous title HIM Empress Teimei (1884-1951). Following her death the vases were gifted by her son, Emperor Showa (r. 1926-89), to Chief Administrator Morimoto on 1st October 1951. These beautiful and extremely rare flasks are wonderful examples of the Chinese potter’s ability to match eccentric shapes with exquisite decoration. The form is made up of two moon flasks joined so that they overlap half way across the diameter of their widest point, providing the porcelain decorator with one ‘full moon’ and one ‘half moon’ shape as his main ‘canvas’ on either side. While conjoined vases do come to prominence in the Qianlong reign, the most usual Qianlong conjoined form is composed of two ovoid lidded vases. For this form, the two vases are not offset but are joined in such a way that approximately one quarter of each is ‘lost’ from mouth to foot, the same being true of the double domed lid, which retains both its finials. A blue and white double lidded vase of this type, bearing a design of archaistic kui dragons, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei is illustrated in Qing Kang Yong Qian Mingci, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, p. 100, no. 70. Interestingly, the underglaze blue six-character Qianlong seal mark written in a single horizontal line on this vessel (illustrated ibid., p. 178, no. 70) as are the marks on the current vessels. Another double lidded vase decorated in falangcai enamels with a design of male children with auspicious emblems is in the collection of the Palace Museum Beijing, and is illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 30-1, no. 26. A further double lidded vase is also in the Palace Museum Beijing (illustrated ibid., p. 36, no. 29). This vase is decorated in falangcai enamels, but instead of carrying the designs seamlessly from one half to the other, the decorators have alternated the ground colour from one half to the other in the main decoration bands. There appears to be only one other published example of a porcelain double moon flask form. This vessel is in the collection of the National Palace Museum Taipei, and is illustrated in Good Fortune, Long Life, Health, and Peace: A Special Exhibition of Porcelains with Auspicious Designs, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1995, p. 175, no. 96. Like those on the current pair of conjoined vases, the mark on the base of the Taipei vase is also written in a single horizontal line in order to conform to the shape of the base. The flattened circular bodies of the vessel overlap in the same manner as on the current vases, but the necks are somewhat wider and are topped by dished mouths. The ‘full moon’ panel bears a design of a pair of quails on rocks with ears of grain and flowers, while the ‘half-moon’ panel is painted with magpies and blossoming prunus. The panels on the Taipei vases are reduced in size by a wide border, while those on the current vases utilise the whole of the circular and half-moon shapes. These are decorated with great delicacy in famille rose enamels with auspicious flowers, including lotus, chrysanthemum, prunus, peony, aster and daylily, with rocks, insects and butterflies. The style of painting is reminiscent of that seen on Yongzheng imperial porcelains.

A SMALL RARE FAMILLE ROSE-ENAMELLED GLASS MINIATURE VASE

QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A SMALL RARE FAMILLE ROSE-ENAMELLED GLASS MINIATURE VASE
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The vase is enamelled to the exterior with an official holding a sceptre and accompanied by an attendant, beside three scholars standing below a large pine tree. Shoulao is depicted flying on a crane above a pavilion. The shoulders are decorated with four cartouches enclosing various insects and fruits.
3 9/16 in. (9.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Christie's Paris, 22 November 2006, lot 26.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

It is possible to compare miniature enamelled glass vases such as the present lot to similarly decorated snuff bottles produced in the same period. In ‘Mysteries of the Ancient Moon’, Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, 38, no. 1 (2006), pp. 31-32, Hugh Moss discusses a group of enamelled glass snuff bottles produced during the Qianlong period, suggesting that these closely relate to a group of Guyue Xuan marked enamelled glass snuff bottles also produced during the Qianlong reign. Moss proposes that the production of these snuff bottles must have started in mid-1767, dating them between approximately 1770 and 1799. He states that production might have stopped in 1799 after the emperor had passed away, as the objects had a direct association with the emperor.

Comparable enamelled glass snuff bottles are illustrated by Robert Kleiner in Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Denis Low, Singapore, 1999, no. 20. Also compare the present lot to a small enamelled glass vase, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 20 April 2002, lot 721.

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