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Lot Essay
This basin is a particularly rare example with its double-phoenix design as the major decorative motif, and it is possible that basins of type were used in the palace chambers for the Qing empresses. A photograph of a corner of Dowager Empress's Chuxiugong, the 'Palace of Gathering Excellence', illustrates a similar basin in situ supported on an mother-of-pearl inlaid stand, see Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commerical Press, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 300, no. 253.
A lobed basin dated to the 18th century designed with two phoenixes and a peony, in the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, London (inv. no. 4785-1858) which entered the museum in 1858, is illustrated in Cloisonné- Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 191, fig. 10.7. An early Qing cloisonné enamel dish featuring a similar cracked-ice ground on the base in the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: The Enamel Volume, Shenyang, 2007, pp. 6-7, pl. 4. Two comparable Ming circular basins featuring two phoenixes in the interior from the Pierre Uldry Collection are illustrated in H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, USA, 1989, pls. 19 and 63.
The double-phoenix is featured on earlier porcelains including a Yue ware bowl dating to the Tang dynasty in the collection of Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, illustrated in S. Pierson, Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 70, no. 68; where the author states that though the phoenix design has a long history in Chinese art, on ceramics it usually represents the empress and is often paired with the dragon. See also a Xuande-marked blue and white plate with a similar design, included in the Exhibition of a Hundred Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, Tokyo, 1980, Catalogue, no. 57.
A lobed basin dated to the 18th century designed with two phoenixes and a peony, in the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, London (inv. no. 4785-1858) which entered the museum in 1858, is illustrated in Cloisonné- Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 191, fig. 10.7. An early Qing cloisonné enamel dish featuring a similar cracked-ice ground on the base in the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: The Enamel Volume, Shenyang, 2007, pp. 6-7, pl. 4. Two comparable Ming circular basins featuring two phoenixes in the interior from the Pierre Uldry Collection are illustrated in H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, USA, 1989, pls. 19 and 63.
The double-phoenix is featured on earlier porcelains including a Yue ware bowl dating to the Tang dynasty in the collection of Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, illustrated in S. Pierson, Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 70, no. 68; where the author states that though the phoenix design has a long history in Chinese art, on ceramics it usually represents the empress and is often paired with the dragon. See also a Xuande-marked blue and white plate with a similar design, included in the Exhibition of a Hundred Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, Tokyo, 1980, Catalogue, no. 57.