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Lot Essay
The painting on the present bowl demonstrates a masterful command of colour contrast and textural variation, achieved through sophisticated technical execution. The peaches, depicted as fully ripened and heavy on the branch, exhibit a remarkably lifelike plumpness. This effect was achieved by blowing enamels onto the glazed surface, combined with delicate brushwork that creates subtle shading from pale green to rose pink for the skin. For peaches depicted with a similarly subtle gradation of colour, compare a Yongzheng famille rose vase decorated with eight peaches in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection no.: xin00046104 (fig. 1). The blossoms, painted with extreme delicacy, convey a sense of fragile beauty and provide a counterpoint to the solidity of the fruit, particularly as they appear to flutter in an implied breeze. The bats are rendered with dynamic energy, captured mid-flight in playful interaction.
The composition of six peaches and five bats is carefully arranged from the foot up the sides and extends over the rim into the interior of the bowl. This ambitious design, in which a flowering branch appears to continue from the exterior of a vessel into its interior, is known as guozhihua (flowering branch passing over the rim) or guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall). First emerging in the late Ming dynasty, this decorative scheme gained prominence during the Qing and appears to have found particular favour at court. The Yongzheng reign saw the apogee of guozhihua decoration on enamelled porcelains, both in terms of painterly excellence and imperial appreciation. Owing to the complexity of the scheme, guozhihua was more commonly employed on dishes, where the broader, more accessible surfaces facilitated execution. For a Yongzheng dish decorated with similar guozhihua design of peaches and bats, see an example in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, collection no.: gu00150245 (fig. 2). Bowls, particularly those of small size, presented considerably greater difficulty due to their restricted and curved working spaces, demanding artists of exceptional skill. The painter of the present bowl undertook the additional challenge of rendering a further pair of fully developed peaches on the interior. Given the variety of techniques employed and the complexity of the design, the successful execution of such a refined composition within the confined space of this relatively small and delicate bowl is remarkable.
Numerous aspects of the design on the current bowl carry auspicious significance, suggesting the bowl may have been created to celebrate an imperial birthday. The term guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall) is a homophone for guo chang zhi (long peace under good government), offering both a compliment to the emperor and a wish for a protracted reign. The peach tree has long been regarded as sacred in China; peach wood was used to craft apotropaic charms. The peach itself symbolises longevity. The presence of six peaches (liu) forms a rebus for retaining or prolonging longevity. Peaches are also closely associated with the Daoist star god of longevity, Shou Lao, and with the legendary peaches of immortality in the orchard of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West. Peach blossoms, in turn, symbolize spring and renewal. The five red bats constitute one of the most pervasive themes in Chinese decorative arts. The red bat (hong fu) provides a rebus for good fortune, while five bats represent the Five Blessings (wu fu): longevity, health, wealth, love of virtue, and a peaceful death. Bats rendered upside down offer an additional rebus: the word for upside down (dao) is a homophone for "arrived," thus conveying the message that "happiness has arrived." The present bowl, with its exceptional quality and layered auspicious imagery, would have been ideally suited as a birthday commission for the Yongzheng emperor, whose reign is widely regarded as having produced some of the finest enamelled porcelains in China's long ceramic history.
This bowl originally formed a pair from the collection of J.D. Chen (Chen Rentao) of Hong Kong, and later entered the collection of Paul (1902-1998) and Helen Bernat (1908-1993). Its counterpart remains in a private collection. A pair of similarly sized Yongzheng bowls with a design of peaches and bats are in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 2000, pp. 108-9, no. 224 (A594).
Another Yongzheng bowl of the same size and decorated as the current bowl is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and is illustrated by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 204, no. 7.44.1. A further pair of bowls is published in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 155, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 1999, lot 539 (fig. 3), and subsequently at Sotheby's London, 16 May 2007, lot 104, and Sothbey’s Hong Kong, 6 April 2015, lot 112. A similar bowl was in the Eisei Bunko collection and then the Meiyintang collection, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 960; later sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 16. Lastly, a Yongzheng bowl of the same size, formerly in the collections of Edward Chow and then Alan Chuang, has a similar design yet with no peaches on the interior, only blossoming branches and bats, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 3622.
The composition of six peaches and five bats is carefully arranged from the foot up the sides and extends over the rim into the interior of the bowl. This ambitious design, in which a flowering branch appears to continue from the exterior of a vessel into its interior, is known as guozhihua (flowering branch passing over the rim) or guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall). First emerging in the late Ming dynasty, this decorative scheme gained prominence during the Qing and appears to have found particular favour at court. The Yongzheng reign saw the apogee of guozhihua decoration on enamelled porcelains, both in terms of painterly excellence and imperial appreciation. Owing to the complexity of the scheme, guozhihua was more commonly employed on dishes, where the broader, more accessible surfaces facilitated execution. For a Yongzheng dish decorated with similar guozhihua design of peaches and bats, see an example in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, collection no.: gu00150245 (fig. 2). Bowls, particularly those of small size, presented considerably greater difficulty due to their restricted and curved working spaces, demanding artists of exceptional skill. The painter of the present bowl undertook the additional challenge of rendering a further pair of fully developed peaches on the interior. Given the variety of techniques employed and the complexity of the design, the successful execution of such a refined composition within the confined space of this relatively small and delicate bowl is remarkable.
Numerous aspects of the design on the current bowl carry auspicious significance, suggesting the bowl may have been created to celebrate an imperial birthday. The term guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall) is a homophone for guo chang zhi (long peace under good government), offering both a compliment to the emperor and a wish for a protracted reign. The peach tree has long been regarded as sacred in China; peach wood was used to craft apotropaic charms. The peach itself symbolises longevity. The presence of six peaches (liu) forms a rebus for retaining or prolonging longevity. Peaches are also closely associated with the Daoist star god of longevity, Shou Lao, and with the legendary peaches of immortality in the orchard of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West. Peach blossoms, in turn, symbolize spring and renewal. The five red bats constitute one of the most pervasive themes in Chinese decorative arts. The red bat (hong fu) provides a rebus for good fortune, while five bats represent the Five Blessings (wu fu): longevity, health, wealth, love of virtue, and a peaceful death. Bats rendered upside down offer an additional rebus: the word for upside down (dao) is a homophone for "arrived," thus conveying the message that "happiness has arrived." The present bowl, with its exceptional quality and layered auspicious imagery, would have been ideally suited as a birthday commission for the Yongzheng emperor, whose reign is widely regarded as having produced some of the finest enamelled porcelains in China's long ceramic history.
This bowl originally formed a pair from the collection of J.D. Chen (Chen Rentao) of Hong Kong, and later entered the collection of Paul (1902-1998) and Helen Bernat (1908-1993). Its counterpart remains in a private collection. A pair of similarly sized Yongzheng bowls with a design of peaches and bats are in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 2000, pp. 108-9, no. 224 (A594).
Another Yongzheng bowl of the same size and decorated as the current bowl is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and is illustrated by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 204, no. 7.44.1. A further pair of bowls is published in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 155, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 1999, lot 539 (fig. 3), and subsequently at Sotheby's London, 16 May 2007, lot 104, and Sothbey’s Hong Kong, 6 April 2015, lot 112. A similar bowl was in the Eisei Bunko collection and then the Meiyintang collection, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 960; later sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 16. Lastly, a Yongzheng bowl of the same size, formerly in the collections of Edward Chow and then Alan Chuang, has a similar design yet with no peaches on the interior, only blossoming branches and bats, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 3622.