AN ENAMELED AND COPPER-RED-DECORATED BEEHIVE WATER COUPE

Details
AN ENAMELED AND COPPER-RED-DECORATED BEEHIVE WATER COUPE
KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD

The slightly domed body rising to a wide mouth with lipped rim, the sides well painted with two thorny rose branches enameled in aubergine outlined in black, the leaves and rose hips in three shades of green enamel and the large blossoms delicately executed in shaded tones of copper red (foot rim chips, glaze cracks)
5in. (12.8cm.) diam.
Provenance
Yamanaka & Co., December, 1935
On loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, October, 1951
Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

Compare the waterpot of this type decorated with branches bearing a single rose in underglaze red and a singe rose hip, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 42, pl. 25 and another in the Baur Collection, illustrated by Ayers in the Catalogue, vol. IV, Geneva, 1974, no. A537, where the companion piece, no. A538, is described as having a green seed pod, as does the present example

Another waterpot of this type, but with two blossoms on the branch, was included in the Special Inaugural Exhibition of Ming and Qing Polychrome Wares from the Collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, Christie's, Shanghai, April 23-25, 1994, Catalogue, no. 7. And one of this latter type was sold in these rooms, December 2, 1989, lot 383A