YONGZHENG (1723-35)

Details

A FINE LARGE FAMILLE ROSE DEEP OCTAFOIL BOWL
Yongzheng (1723-35)
Brightly enamelled on the exterior with eight lotus-petal-shaped cartouches reserved on a puce floral cell-pattern ground, each cartouche depicting a different scene from Xi Xiang Ji (The Romance of the Western Chamber), the interior richly enamelled with large bold peony sprays and smaller blooms at the centre, below a wide band of puce cell-pattern reserved with gui dragon roundels alternating with peony heads below the foliate rim, rim slightly polished
14¾ in. (37.5 cm.) diam.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, Monaco, 20 June 1988, lot 143 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. J-146).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Xi Xiang Ji is a well-known tale, which has its origins in a 8th/9th Century prose story called Yingying Zhuan (The Biography of Yingying). By the 12th Century it had developed into a long ballad, and it was then that the story acquired its happy ending and has remained popular ever since. The story concerns the romance between Zhang Sheng, a talented but poor scholar, and Cui Yingying, a beautiful maiden, whose mother Madam Zheng will not allow the couple to marry. She sends Zhang away to the capital to seek his fortune (scholarly success). In the end he is successful and claims Yingying as his bride.
An almost identical bowl, from the collection of The Hon. Frederic Wallop, is illustrated by G. C. Williamson, The Book of Famille Rose, 1927, pl.LI.

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