A VERY RARE SMALL YELLOW-GLAZED BOTTLE VASE

Imperial Art of the Late Qing Rosemary Scott Although, in the past, there has been a tendency in the West to overlook porcelains made after the Qianlong period (1736-95), there is now a growing appreciation of wares of the late Qing and early Republic periods. Internationally it is being recognised that a significant number of porcelains made during the 19th and early 20th centuries are of very high quality. Some of these faithfully follow the styles of the high Qing, some demonstrate new twists to traditional designs, while others bear interesting new designs. It should be no surprise to discover fine imperial porcelains of the Jiaqing reign (1796-1820). The Qianlong emperor, known for the exacting demands he made in regard to porcelains for his court, had merely abdicated in 1795, and continued to be a powerful presence at court until his death in 1799. Many of the imperial porcelain made during his son's reign are very close in style and quality to those made under Qianlong. This is very clearly seen in the enamelled wares with coloured grounds. The beautiful turquoise ground, cloisonné enamel style, box (lot 1462) follows both the choice of motifs and the painting style of Qianlong imperial porcelains, but applies them most effectively to a circular box, and adjusts the scale of the motifs to the size of the object. The green ground teapot (lot 1465) with its elegant multicoloured scrolls, is close in both shape and decoration to Qianlong vessels, and includes an inscribed panel as part of the design, as did so many Qianlong porcelains. However, while the inscriptions on most Qianlong vessels were applied in black enamel, the Jiajing teapot has been inscribed in red enamel - perhaps to give it a more celebratory appearance, or perhaps to remind those who saw it, that only the emperor wrote in vermilion ink. As Rose Kerr has pointed out, the reign of the Daoguang emperor (1821-50): 'saw the production of many fine porcelains, the best of them comparable in quality to those of the Qianlong era'. (1) As with the porcelain of the Jiaqing reign, some of the finest Daoguang pieces are those with coloured grounds. A fine example is the yellow ground bowl (lot 1467) with its exuberant and exquisitely painted floral scrolls. The decoration on this well-potted bowl accords closely with that on the magnificent Qianlong vase sold in these rooms on 29 April 2001, lot 555. An almost identical Jiaqing bowl is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.(2) One of the other Daoguang designs that is particularly effective can be seen on a bowl (lot 1466), which has underglaze blue decoration on the interior and delicate floral medallions reserved against a coloured ground with additional floral sprays on the exterior. Interestingly the popular sale by Christie's of bowls of this type in the late 19th century is mentioned by Stephen Bushell in his 1896 publication Oriental Ceramic Art. He notes that: 'The "medallion bowls" of this period are perhaps the most general favourite, and in London, at Christie's auction-rooms, where they are wont to figure under the name of "Peking basins", they are seldom sold for less than ten guineas a pair. The name is as misleading as that of "Nanking blue and white", as porcelain was never made at either Peking or Nanking. The bowls are found at Peking today, because they were sent there from Ching-te-Chen at the time they were made for the service of the emperor.'(3) This gives a good indication of how much these bowls were admired, since in the 1890s they could be a little as forty years old, and ten guineas was a considerable sum, equivalent to approximately two months average wage. In the middle of the Xianfeng reign (1851-61), in 1855, the peasant troops of the Taiping rebellion burned down the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, and it seems that for a time porcelains for the court had to be made at private Jingdezhen kilns. This was by no means the first time that imperial pieces had been made at private kilns, since this had been common practice in the 16th century under the Jiajing emperor (1522-66) when court orders were so extravagant that they could not be fulfilled at the official kilns, and the remainder of the porcelain had to come from private kilns. This system, which was called guan da min shao 'ordered by the government, fired by the people', continued into the Wanli reign (1573-1620). The porcelains from the first part of the Xianfeng reign are known for their 'snow white' porcelain bodies, and this can clearly be seen on the rare jardiniere (lot 1475) with underglaze blue decoration. This jardiniere is also a good example of a new style of combining and adapting earlier motifs and styles. Firstly, the masks on the legs are combined with decorative roundels on the body, which was a new combination. Secondly the roundels are painted in underglaze blue. Roundels of this type had been used on fine Chinese porcelain since the Yongzheng reign, but previously they had usually been painted in overglaze enamels. It is possible that the design, which owes its original form to textiles, entered the Chinese repertoire via Japanese luxury goods imported into China in the 18th century. Such designs were already seen on Japanese porcelains made at the Arita kilns of Kyushu province in the 17th century. The reign of the Tongzhi emperor (1862-74) was quite short and relatively little porcelain has survived from this period. It would seem that government troops finally gained control of the Jingdezhen area in April 1861, but historical sources are divided as to whether the imperial kilns were re-built at this time. Both Bushell and Kwan note that funds were made available to re-build the imperial kilns on their original foundations,(4) while the Jingdezhen taoci shigao states that after 1866 the imperial kilns continued to operate under new directors, who were appointed at Jiujiang. However, other authors have expressed doubts as to whether the imperial kilns were actually ever re-built.(5) Nevertheless, there is a list of imperial wares made for the Tongzhi emperor in 1864, which has been translated by Bushell.(6) Of the surviving Tongzhi porcelains, a number are painted with great delicacy, as can be seen from the delightful scattered floral sprays that decorate the Tongzhi box in the current sale (lot 1470). In the reign of the Guangxu emperor (1875-1908), with the situation at Jingdezhen stable, porcelain production underwent a renaissance. Bold monochromes were made in styles that were reminiscent of the 18th century, but that often combined the decorative elements in an innovative way. The handsome pair of Guangxu lobed vases (lot 1456) is a case in point. The flower-shaped panels on the sides of these vases echo, but do not reproduce, the ogival shapes formed by the mouths of the vessels, while the finely incised dragons within the panels contrast with the sturdy masks bearing the ring handles on the shoulders. Vessels decorated with boldly painted lotus petals were also a feature of the Guangxu reign. As can be seen on the bowls in the current sale (lot 1457 and 1458), these petals were painted with great precision, and making full use of shading and contrasting enamel colours. As in the Xianfeng reign, the Yongzheng design of decorative roundels can also be seen among Guangxu porcelains. On the vase (lot 1476) we see another variant of this design, not the coloured enamels of Yongzheng or the underglaze blue of Xianfeng, but a beautifully rich design of gold roundels on a deep cobalt blue ground. Indeed it is probably the Guangxu reign that provides the greatest variety of fine quality decoration in the late Qing period. The last short reign of the Qing dynasty was that of the Xuantong emperor (1908-11), from which very few porcelains have survived. This marked the end of imperial porcelain production in China, unless one counts the porcelains made for Yuan Shikai, when he briefly declared himself emperor, taking the reign name Hongxian in 1916. Yuan Shikai sent Guo Baochang to Jingdezhen to set up imperial porcelain production once again. Guo Baochang hired the best potters and painters and succeeded in making some extremely fine enamelled wares. However, the Hongxian reign lasted less than a year, and after its demise the Jiangxi Porcelain company took over virtually all of the best craftsmen as well as the plant. It was here that some of the fine enamelled porcelains of the Republican Period were made. 1. Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1986, p. 122. 2. ibid., p. 121, pl. 106. 3. Stephen W. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, New York, 1896; Second Edition London, 1981, p. 240. 4. Stephen Bushell, op. cit., p. 152; Simon Kwan, Imperial Porcelain of the Late Qing, Hong Kong, 1983, pp. 20-1. 5. Stanley Wright, Kiangsi Native Trade and Taxation, Shanghai, 1920, p. 21 and 'The Provinces of China', National Review Album, Shanghai 1910 - both quoted by Michael Dillion, 'A History of the Porcelain Industry in Jingdezhen', unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 1976, p. 54 and p. 59, respectively. 6. Stephen Bushell, op. cit., p. 238-49. THE PROPERTY OF A SOUTHEAST ASIAN GENTLEMAN

Details

A VERY RARE SMALL YELLOW-GLAZED BOTTLE VASE
DAOGUANG AUBERGINE-ENAMEL SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1821-1850)

The bulbous body and cylindrical neck covered on the exterior with a rich lemon-yellow glaze ending just above the tapered, unglazed foot ring
6 1/2 in. (16.4 cm.) high

Provenance

The Yangzhitang Collection, sold in our Singapore Rooms, 30 March 1997, lot 299

Exhibited

Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing from the Kwan Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1983, Catalogue no. 78
Imperial Porcelain of Late Ch'ing from the Kwan Collection, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1985, Catalogue no. 78

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