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Lot Essay
This elegant and refined bowl represents the extraordinary technical ability and speed of development in Chinese porcelain manufacture and decoration in the eighteenth century. This ruby-colored enamel was originally developed in Europe, and can be seen on wares produced at Meissen and Sèvres, but Chinese craftsmen were able to make significant improvements: through the use of ground ruby glass, as well as reducing the proportion of colloidal gold and the amount of tin in the mixture, they created a more stable and even product which surpassed the European versions of this enamel.
Yongzheng period examples of ruby-enameled wares are generally small vessels, with exceptionally fine potting to emphasize the quality of the enamel, and, as on the present bowl, to highlight the skilled anhua decoration. Such bowls with anhua decoration are very rare; however, two examples were sold from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, at Christie's New York, 15 September 2016, lots 925 and 928.
For other examples of related ruby-enameled vessels, see a ruby-enameled bowl with a flared rim, and a ruby-backed dish, both with Yongzheng marks and of the period, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 252, nos. 255 and 256, respectively. Two cups with straight sides and very slightly flared rims are illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes. The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 66-67, no. 16, and a bowl from the Zhuyuetang Collection, of form similar to that of the present bowl, is illustrated in A Millennium of Monochromes from the Great Tang to the High Qing. The Baur and the Zhuyuetang Collections, Milan, 2018, pp. 272-73, no. 120.
Yongzheng period examples of ruby-enameled wares are generally small vessels, with exceptionally fine potting to emphasize the quality of the enamel, and, as on the present bowl, to highlight the skilled anhua decoration. Such bowls with anhua decoration are very rare; however, two examples were sold from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, at Christie's New York, 15 September 2016, lots 925 and 928.
For other examples of related ruby-enameled vessels, see a ruby-enameled bowl with a flared rim, and a ruby-backed dish, both with Yongzheng marks and of the period, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 252, nos. 255 and 256, respectively. Two cups with straight sides and very slightly flared rims are illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes. The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 66-67, no. 16, and a bowl from the Zhuyuetang Collection, of form similar to that of the present bowl, is illustrated in A Millennium of Monochromes from the Great Tang to the High Qing. The Baur and the Zhuyuetang Collections, Milan, 2018, pp. 272-73, no. 120.