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Lot Essay
This rare and elegant moon flask is a testament to the superb craftsmanship of the potters at the Imperial kilns during the Yongzheng reign. The vessel is finely potted and the decoration - executed in the finest cobalt - is extremely well painted. The composition of floral blooms and foliate scrolls is perfectly balanced and showcases the craftsman's masterful spacing of the composition to create a rich yet not overly crowded design.
The Yongzheng Emperor greatly admired Ming blue-and-white porcelains of the 15th-century and had a considerable number in his collection, as evidenced by their depiction in two scroll paintings entitled Guwan tu, "Pictures of Ancient Playthings," which act as inventories of the Imperial collection during his reign. One such scroll is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the other in the Percival David Collection is now housed in the British Museum. Both handscrolls are illustrated in China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 252-55, nos. 168 and 169. Both the shape of the current flask and the composite floral scroll that provides its main decoration take their inspiration from early 15th-century Imperial porcelains, such as the Yongle (1403-1425) moon flask of similar shape, but lacking handles, and decorated overall with lotus scroll, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, p. 112. (Fig. 1)
A Yongzheng-marked blue-and-white moon flask of similar shape and with similar composite floral scroll decoration, but with formalized floral scroll pattern on the neck and of slightly smaller size (37 cm. high), was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20 May 1981, lot 758, and again on 8 October 2013, and is featured in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20 Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 175. Another Yongzheng-marked moon flask of very similar shape, but of smaller size (28.4 cm.) and featuring fewer blossoms in the scroll decoration, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi, vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 104-5, no. 41. See, also, the Yongzheng-marked moon flask decorated with comparable floral scroll, but with a slightly flared mouth rim and waisted neck flanked by stylized dragon handles, and of larger size (41.5 cm.), sold in The Tianminlou Collection; Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 2711. (Fig. 2)
The current moon flask was formerly in the esteemed collection of Ira (1912-2004) and Nancy (1915-2005) Koger, who assembled a significant collection of Chinese ceramics spanning the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty. Ira Koger was a successful real estate developer in Florida and the Southeast, who became renowned and revered for creating the concept of the office park. In 1985, former Keeper at the Victoria and Alberts Museum, John Ayers, published the seminal catalogue, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, and in 2001, the Kogers donated nearly 400 works from the collection to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida.
The Yongzheng Emperor greatly admired Ming blue-and-white porcelains of the 15th-century and had a considerable number in his collection, as evidenced by their depiction in two scroll paintings entitled Guwan tu, "Pictures of Ancient Playthings," which act as inventories of the Imperial collection during his reign. One such scroll is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the other in the Percival David Collection is now housed in the British Museum. Both handscrolls are illustrated in China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 252-55, nos. 168 and 169. Both the shape of the current flask and the composite floral scroll that provides its main decoration take their inspiration from early 15th-century Imperial porcelains, such as the Yongle (1403-1425) moon flask of similar shape, but lacking handles, and decorated overall with lotus scroll, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, p. 112. (Fig. 1)
A Yongzheng-marked blue-and-white moon flask of similar shape and with similar composite floral scroll decoration, but with formalized floral scroll pattern on the neck and of slightly smaller size (37 cm. high), was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20 May 1981, lot 758, and again on 8 October 2013, and is featured in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20 Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 175. Another Yongzheng-marked moon flask of very similar shape, but of smaller size (28.4 cm.) and featuring fewer blossoms in the scroll decoration, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi, vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 104-5, no. 41. See, also, the Yongzheng-marked moon flask decorated with comparable floral scroll, but with a slightly flared mouth rim and waisted neck flanked by stylized dragon handles, and of larger size (41.5 cm.), sold in The Tianminlou Collection; Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 2711. (Fig. 2)
The current moon flask was formerly in the esteemed collection of Ira (1912-2004) and Nancy (1915-2005) Koger, who assembled a significant collection of Chinese ceramics spanning the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty. Ira Koger was a successful real estate developer in Florida and the Southeast, who became renowned and revered for creating the concept of the office park. In 1985, former Keeper at the Victoria and Alberts Museum, John Ayers, published the seminal catalogue, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, and in 2001, the Kogers donated nearly 400 works from the collection to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida.