JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)

The red and yellow combination is a distinctive colour scheme of the Jiajing period. The result required three firings: first at around 1300 °C for clear-glazed porcelain, then at a lower temperature for the yellow overglaze enamel, and finally at a still lower temperature for the iron-red enamel. The process was laborious and required meticulous attention to detail, contributing to the high failure rate and thus the rarity. The visual effect also serves as a pun ‘huang shang hong (red above yellow)’, which can be expanded into an auspicious message wishing the ‘Emperor’s fortune as vast as Heaven’.

It is unusual to find bowls decorated in yellow and red enamels. The present bowl appears to be the only example at auctions. The present lot is further painted with phoenix design, symbol of the Empress, above the two layers of enamels, and it is possible that it was used during imperial rituals. Compare to other vessels from the Jiajing period using the same combination of yellow and red enamels but different patterns, a double-gourd vase in the collection of Palace Museum, Beijing, and a yellow and red-enamelled ‘dragon’ jar and cover in the collection of National Palace Museum, Taipei. Furthermore, compare a Jiajing yellow-ground iron-red enamelled ‘dragon and crane’ stem cup, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 10 April 2006, lot 1783.