Lot Essay
This is among the finest vases of its kind. The pink, white, yellow, brown, black, green and blue enamels achieve admirable clarity of colour rarely seen on other Qianlong vases of this design. The quality of the painting and fine texture of the enamels combine together to create an unusual harmony and tension between design and ceramic form.
The fencai palette on vases of this type is a progression in the development of low-fired enamels of earlier Kangxi and Yongzheng periods. Compare, for example, a smaller Yongzheng vase sparsely enamelled with peaches, cf. Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, pl. 39, to another Qianlong-marked example with a more crowded composition, op. cit., pl. 16.
Cf. similar vases in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in the Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain, Ch'ien Lung and Other Wares, pl. 27; one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Valenstein, Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, pl. 165; another in the Tokyo National Museum, Catalogue, no. 640; and a fourth example in the British Museum, illustrated by Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, pl. LXV.
Several other vases of this design have been sold at auction in recent years, one from the J.M. Hu Family Collection sold in New York, 4 June 1985, lot 55; one from the T.Y. Chao Collection sold in Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 134; another from the John B. Trevor, Jr. Collection sold in these Rooms, 26 September 1989, lot 747.
(US$500,000-600,000)
The fencai palette on vases of this type is a progression in the development of low-fired enamels of earlier Kangxi and Yongzheng periods. Compare, for example, a smaller Yongzheng vase sparsely enamelled with peaches, cf. Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, pl. 39, to another Qianlong-marked example with a more crowded composition, op. cit., pl. 16.
Cf. similar vases in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in the Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain, Ch'ien Lung and Other Wares, pl. 27; one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Valenstein, Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, pl. 165; another in the Tokyo National Museum, Catalogue, no. 640; and a fourth example in the British Museum, illustrated by Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, pl. LXV.
Several other vases of this design have been sold at auction in recent years, one from the J.M. Hu Family Collection sold in New York, 4 June 1985, lot 55; one from the T.Y. Chao Collection sold in Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 134; another from the John B. Trevor, Jr. Collection sold in these Rooms, 26 September 1989, lot 747.
(US$500,000-600,000)