Lot Essay
An identical waterpot is illustrated by Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, p. 167, pl. 139, where the glaze is described as 'moon-white' and the medallions are of 'a dragon biting another creature, and a bat'. Two other waterpots are recorded, one in the Chinese University of Hong Kong Museum, illustrated in their 1995 exhibition Catalogue, Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, no. 3; the other in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, pl. 28.
Waterpots of this beehive-shape are more commonly found with peachbloom glazes. It is rare to find a white glazed example. It is also unusual to find the design of the roundels moulded in intaglio, rather than of incised decoration. Compare with a yellow example from the Percival David Collection, mentioned in the Catalogue, section 6, no. A508.
(US$20,000-25,000)
Waterpots of this beehive-shape are more commonly found with peachbloom glazes. It is rare to find a white glazed example. It is also unusual to find the design of the roundels moulded in intaglio, rather than of incised decoration. Compare with a yellow example from the Percival David Collection, mentioned in the Catalogue, section 6, no. A508.
(US$20,000-25,000)