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Lot Essay
Vases of this type are also known as heban ping, referring to the narrow petals as being lotus rather than chrysanthemum petals, remarked by Ralph M. Chait, 'The Eight Prescribed Peachbloom Shapes bearing K'ang Hsi Marks', Oriental Art, vol. III, No. 4, Winter 1957, pp. 130-7. They are one of the peachbloom-glazed vessels known as the 'Eight Great Numbers', badama, which are some of the most sophisticated and distinguished of all imperial porcelains.
Stephen Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art: Illustrated Examples from the Collection of W.T. Walters, 1981, new ed., London, discussed the variations in the peachbloom glaze and notes that 'the Chinese, in comparing the colour, have thought of the apple rather than the peach; it is pinguo hong (apple red), and the markings on it are pingguo qing (apple green), and meigui ci (rose-crimson),' as well as 'jiangdou hong (bean red), in allusion to the small Chinese kidney bean, with its variegated pink colour and brown spots.' Nevertheless, the great difficulty in achieving the colour meant it was rarely used on larger sized ceramics, but associated solely with the group of scholarly objects favoured by the Kangxi Emperor.
Other examples are found in major institutions and collections including one in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 18; another in the Percival David Foundation, London, now housed at the British Museum, and illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, 1982, vol. 6, col. pl. 52; and from the Baur Collection illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1972, Vol. III, no. A302. Two other examples were sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2009, lots 442 and 447.
Stephen Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art: Illustrated Examples from the Collection of W.T. Walters, 1981, new ed., London, discussed the variations in the peachbloom glaze and notes that 'the Chinese, in comparing the colour, have thought of the apple rather than the peach; it is pinguo hong (apple red), and the markings on it are pingguo qing (apple green), and meigui ci (rose-crimson),' as well as 'jiangdou hong (bean red), in allusion to the small Chinese kidney bean, with its variegated pink colour and brown spots.' Nevertheless, the great difficulty in achieving the colour meant it was rarely used on larger sized ceramics, but associated solely with the group of scholarly objects favoured by the Kangxi Emperor.
Other examples are found in major institutions and collections including one in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 18; another in the Percival David Foundation, London, now housed at the British Museum, and illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, 1982, vol. 6, col. pl. 52; and from the Baur Collection illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1972, Vol. III, no. A302. Two other examples were sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2009, lots 442 and 447.