A Pair of Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Bowls

QIANLONG

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A Pair of Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Bowls
Qianlong
Each heavily cast and gilded with rounded sides decorated with four roundels enclosing the characters, wan shou wu jiang (ten thousand years of long life without end), reserved on a ground of lotus sprays between borders of petal lappets below and keyfret above, the base inscribed with a four-character mark, Zi sun yong bao in archaic seal script within a double square
65/8in. (16.7cm.) diam. (2)

Lot Essay

A pair of slightly smaller bowls of this design, bearing the same inscription, is illustrated by C. Brown, Chinese Cloisonné; The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1980, pl. 56, where the authors translate the inscription, zi sun yong bao, as 'sons and grandsons forever treasure', a reference to a phrase which concludes the inscription on a ding from the early Zhou dynasty, illustrated by W. Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, 1977, pl. 47a and fig. 7., p. 83. The authors also cite other similar examples of varying sizes: a single bowl in the Clague Collection; one in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin, illustrated by R. Goepper, Kunst and Kunsthandwerk, 1968, pl. 258; and six in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, museum nos. 41.53.1A-F.

See, also, the pair of smaller bowls (10cm. diam.) sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 27 April 1997, lot 16.

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