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Lot Essay
Fruit and flowers served as inspiration to the Qing-dynasty potters, with the natural shapes translated into both porcelain shapes and other decorations laden with hidden meanings. A well-known emblem of fertility and numerous progeny, the pomegranate is also a pun on the character zi, which means "seed" or "offspring." Introduced to China in the Tang dynasty, the pomegranate appears as a decorative motif as prolifically as the peach, the emblem of longevity, but is perhaps better suited in proportion and shape to serve as a small vase such as the present piece.
This attractive and easy-to-handle form appears to have been produced with a variety of well-applied monochrome glazes in the Yongzheng reign. A similar, celadon-glazed example, with a Yongzheng mark, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-Cheng and Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, 1986, p. 93, no. 62. A tea-dust glazed example with a Yongzheng mark, in the Nanjing Museum, is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 206. Another in the Musée Guimet, Paris, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, no. 47. A Yongzheng-marked example covered in a flambé glaze, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu - ciqi juan - Qing dai, Shanghai, 2007, p. 95, no. 61, and bears a Yongzheng mark.
This attractive and easy-to-handle form appears to have been produced with a variety of well-applied monochrome glazes in the Yongzheng reign. A similar, celadon-glazed example, with a Yongzheng mark, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-Cheng and Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, 1986, p. 93, no. 62. A tea-dust glazed example with a Yongzheng mark, in the Nanjing Museum, is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 206. Another in the Musée Guimet, Paris, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, no. 47. A Yongzheng-marked example covered in a flambé glaze, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu - ciqi juan - Qing dai, Shanghai, 2007, p. 95, no. 61, and bears a Yongzheng mark.