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Lot Essay
Each side of the vase is decorated in vibrant copper-red tones with a dragon leaping in pursuit of a copper-red flaming pearl amidst blue clouds and above a band of wind-tossed waves, and a pair of arched handles painted with classic scroll flanks the cylindrical neck.
This type of moonflask is also known as ‘ma gua ping’. According to Qing court archives, on the 8th day of the 4th month of the Qianlong 7th year (1742), ‘court official Hai Wang received an order to make a few ma gua ping with copper-red dragons and underglaze-blue clouds over a white ground, to be passed on to Tang Ying in Jiangxi’. The present moonflask may be one of those recorded flasks.
Compare to a very similar Qianlong moonflask from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III) , Hong Kong, 2000, no. 213 (fig. 1); a larger one was exhibited in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, no. 66; one from the collection of Gerald Reitlinger, illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, P. XCIV, fig. 1.
Compare to a larger flask of the same form and design, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 776; and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2009, lot 1605.
This type of moonflask is also known as ‘ma gua ping’. According to Qing court archives, on the 8th day of the 4th month of the Qianlong 7th year (1742), ‘court official Hai Wang received an order to make a few ma gua ping with copper-red dragons and underglaze-blue clouds over a white ground, to be passed on to Tang Ying in Jiangxi’. The present moonflask may be one of those recorded flasks.
Compare to a very similar Qianlong moonflask from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III) , Hong Kong, 2000, no. 213 (fig. 1); a larger one was exhibited in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, no. 66; one from the collection of Gerald Reitlinger, illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, P. XCIV, fig. 1.
Compare to a larger flask of the same form and design, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 776; and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2009, lot 1605.