YONGZHENG (1723-35)

Details

A LARGE FAMILLE ROSE BALUSTER VASE AND COVER
YONGZHENG (1723-35)
The body with broad shoulder tapering to a slightly bulbous area above the foot and rising to a cylindrical neck, finely and brightly enamelled with two large panels reserved on a densely floral ground, one panel decorated with six mandarin ducks swimming and in flight amongst very large lotus flowers and leaves, one duck with its head below the water and one skimming the surface of the water about to land, a cicada feeding on a lotus petal, a butterfly drawn towards a flower, and two egrets completing the scene, the other panel with a pheasant in flight approaching another perched on a tree peony branch beside six further birds including a pair of yellow long-tailed birds perched on a branch of prunus, the shoulder with four ruyi-shaped cartouches each with a small yellow bird on magnolia and prunus branches, the neck with fruiting and flowering peach branches, and the domed cover enamelled with similar birds and flowers below the bud finial decorated at the top with rows of pink and yellow chrysanthemum petals
24 7/8 in. (63 cm.) high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

A closely related vase, without cover, from the Salting Collection, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by W. B. Honey, Guide to the Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1927, plate 87 and p. 53, where the author comments "A splendid example of the famille rose, made before over-refinement had robbed the art of its virility, is a large vase (C. 1462-1910: Plate 87) occupying pedestal-case 30 in the Salting Collection. The new colours are here used in bold and sensitive drawing with fine effect."

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