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Lot Essay
The baluster jar is finely decorated with a scene depicting white egrets in a lotus pond, all above a band of crashing waves around the foot and below an elaborate band of tassels suspending from the shoulder. The neck is decorated with large scrolling clouds. The domed cover, surmounted by a bud-shaped finial, is similarly decorated with egrets and lotus pond. All outlines are finely gilt and raised against a rich sapphire-blue ground.
This sumptuously decorated jar and cover reflects Qianlong Emperor’s admiration for two different decorative techniques, combining the finest elements of both- fahua porcelains and cloisonné enamels on metal. While the gilded cloisonné-style outlines provides the jar a rich, jewel-like surface, the fahua slip lines and incised details allow for a draftsmanship far more fluid than metalwork permits.
Such was the Qianlong Emperor’s appreciation for Ming dynasty porcelain fahua porcelains and cloisonné wares that he commissioned works inspired by both media for the imperial court. A related jar in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (fig. 1), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 167, no. 148, is slightly smaller, lacks its cover, and features a more formal style without egrets. An almost identical lidded jar, formerly in the J.T. Tai Foundation Collection and Wang Xing Lou Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2722 (fig. 2), very likely forms the companion pair to the present jar. A similar but smaller uncovered jar is in the Baur Collection, illustrated in J. Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva - Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Geneve, 1974, no. A634. Further compare to a pair of smaller lidded jars with lotus pond and heron decoration in famille rose fahua, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3220 (fig. 3).
The high esteem in which such vessels were held by the Qianlong Emperor is corroborated by a court painting (c. 1771–1772) in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, by Yao Wenhan (active 1740s-70s), Zhou Ben (active 1760s-70s) and Yi Lantai (active 1748-86), depicting the Emperor celebrating the 80th birthday of his mother, Empress Dowager Chongqing. Among the precious items displayed on the table beneath the imperial dais is a prominent pair of lidded jars of this very type (fig. 4)- raising the fascinating possibility that the present jar and the closely matching example from Wang Xing Lou sold at Christie’s Hong Kong once constituted the very pair immortalised in this court painting.
This sumptuously decorated jar and cover reflects Qianlong Emperor’s admiration for two different decorative techniques, combining the finest elements of both- fahua porcelains and cloisonné enamels on metal. While the gilded cloisonné-style outlines provides the jar a rich, jewel-like surface, the fahua slip lines and incised details allow for a draftsmanship far more fluid than metalwork permits.
Such was the Qianlong Emperor’s appreciation for Ming dynasty porcelain fahua porcelains and cloisonné wares that he commissioned works inspired by both media for the imperial court. A related jar in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (fig. 1), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 167, no. 148, is slightly smaller, lacks its cover, and features a more formal style without egrets. An almost identical lidded jar, formerly in the J.T. Tai Foundation Collection and Wang Xing Lou Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2722 (fig. 2), very likely forms the companion pair to the present jar. A similar but smaller uncovered jar is in the Baur Collection, illustrated in J. Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva - Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Geneve, 1974, no. A634. Further compare to a pair of smaller lidded jars with lotus pond and heron decoration in famille rose fahua, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3220 (fig. 3).
The high esteem in which such vessels were held by the Qianlong Emperor is corroborated by a court painting (c. 1771–1772) in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, by Yao Wenhan (active 1740s-70s), Zhou Ben (active 1760s-70s) and Yi Lantai (active 1748-86), depicting the Emperor celebrating the 80th birthday of his mother, Empress Dowager Chongqing. Among the precious items displayed on the table beneath the imperial dais is a prominent pair of lidded jars of this very type (fig. 4)- raising the fascinating possibility that the present jar and the closely matching example from Wang Xing Lou sold at Christie’s Hong Kong once constituted the very pair immortalised in this court painting.