A LARGE TURQUOISE-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE BOWL

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF RONALD W. LONGSDORF

Details

A LARGE TURQUOISE-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE BOWL
TONGZHI/EARLY GUANGXU PERIOD (1862-1908)

Of rounded sides decorated in the famille rose palette with a bird perched on a wisteria branch, amidst blossoming rose branches growing to the sides, the flowering wisteria extending over the rim and extending into the interior, inscribed in iron-red below the mouth rim with the characters, Dayazhai, beside the Tian Di Yi Jia Chun sealmark, all on a pale turquoise-ground, further decorated with narrow gilt band on the mouth rim, repeated above the ring foot, the base bearing the iron-red Yong Qing Chang Chun mark
6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Georg Weishaupt, Berlin

Literature

Gunhild Avitabile, From the Dragon's Treasure, Chinese Porcelain from the 19th & 20th Century, 1987, p. 112, no. 161
Ronald W. Longsdorf, 'Dayazhai Ware: Porcelains of the Empress Dowager', Orientations, p. 46, fig. 1

Lot Essay

Previously sold at Christie's London, December 10, 1984, lot 955.

The present bowl is possibly one of the Sir Nicholas O'Conor bowls described in Bushell's Oriental Ceramic Art, 1896, pp.46-47. This is suggested by J.H. Myrtle (in correspondence with R. W. Longsdorf in 1984) in response to the quality of the bowl and the statement in the Christie's London catalogue as a footnote to lot 955 that the piece was 'acquired by a diplomat prior to his death in 1902.'

O'Conor was born in County Roscommon, Ireland in 1843. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1866. He had a variety of postings, including Secretary of Legation at Beijing from 1883-1886, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China from 1892-1895.

The original sketch of a jardiniere of this pattern is illustrated, in Guanyang Yuci, The Forbidden City Publishing House, 2007, p. 206, no. 50 (fig. 1).

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