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Lot Essay
Floral Celebrations: Three Yongzheng yuzhi red-ground porcelains
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
The three imperial porcelain vessels which form the focus of this essay were inherited from the collection of Thomas R. Vaughan (d. 1979), who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1908. After graduating from the Law School of George Washington University in 1935, he worked in private practice and for the Federal Government in Washington, D.C., before joining the legal department of the Freeport Minerals Company of New York in 1942. Thomas Vaughan became the company’s executive vice president and general counsel, prior to taking over as president in 1968 and being appointed chairman of the board and chief executive officer in 1969. His fine Qing dynasty porcelain collection was largely purchased from the prestigious gallery of Frank Caro (1904-80). Caro was a longtime associate of the famous dealer in Asian art C.T. Loo (Lu Qingzhai), and in the 1950s took over the running of his gallery on 57th Street, New York. Asian art acquired from this gallery is to be found in many major international museum collections.
All three of the current vessels are decorated with finely-painted overglaze enamel floral designs against red grounds. In China the colour red is associated with happiness and celebration, and so each of these vessels was probably made to mark some auspicious occasion. Two of the porcelains have coral-red grounds, coloured with iron oxide, while the third has a ruby-red ground, which owes its colour to colloidal gold. The size and shape of the two tub-shaped cups - one with ruby-red ground and one with coral-red ground, suggests that they may date to the early part of the Yongzheng reign, since small, relatively deep, tub-shaped cups, without foot rings but with slightly recessed bases, and with straight mouth rims are more characteristic of the Kangxi reign. A Kangxi cup of similar shape and size, with a four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark in rouge enamel, and decorated with pale blue panels reserved against a ruby ground, from the Qing court collection, is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 11, no. 9). It is interesting to note that two other tub-shaped cups of similar size and shape, which bear almost identical decoration of multicoloured flowers against an egg-yolk yellow ground – one with a blue enamel four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark and the other with a blue enamel four-character Yongzheng yuzhi mark – are in the collections of C. P. Lin and Sir Percival David, respectively (see Rosemary Scott, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration – Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, p. 119, nos. 129 and 130). The closeness of form and decoration of these two yellow-ground cups also suggests that the Yongzheng example was made in the early years of the reign – shortly after the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the Kangxi Emperor’s throne. The majority of the small tub-shaped cups of the Yongzheng reign appear to be slightly shallower than the current ruby-ground and coral-ground cups, as well as the yellow-ground cups. An early Yongzheng date for the current red-ground cups is also suggested by palace archival records, which note that on the 16th day of the 7th month of the 4th year of the Yongzheng reign (1726), twenty-four ‘first class red-ground falang wine cups’, with zitan trays, were presented to the Emperor, possibly a reference to wine cups similar to the present examples.
The rare Yongzheng ruby-ground wine cup is superbly painted in jewel-like colours. Those used to create the graceful floral scroll which encircles the exterior of the cup are of a brilliance and clarity that enables them to stand out against the ruby-coloured ground, producing an overall design of particular richness. Two similar cups have been published from important international collections. One is in the collection of Sir Percival David (1892-1964), and is published in Illustrated Catalogue of Qing enamelled Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, revised edition, 1991, pp. 28 and 32, PDF 834 (Fig. 1). Sir Percival David acquired the cup from another well-known collector, Charles Russell (1866-1960), who had published it in 1930 in an article entitled ‘A Series of Ch’ing bowls made by Imperial Order’ in The Collector, vol. XI, 1930, pp. 202-208. Another similar cup was formerly in the famous T.Y. Chao (1912-99) Collection, and was sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4-5 November 1997, lot 1566.
The majority of surviving Yongzheng porcelains with ruby-red grounds are decorated with prunus blossom. A pair of falangcai Yongzheng tub-shaped cups with prunus blossom on a ruby-ground is in the collection of Mr. Alan Chuang (illustrated in The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 278-281, no. 116), and a similar Yongzheng cup was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 30 November 2016, Lot 3218 (Fig. 2). Two Yongzheng falangcai cups, also decorated with plum blossom against a ruby ground, are in the Palace Museum, Beijing. They are both badly damaged and so are in the study collection (illustrated by the Palace Museum Research Centre in Gugong Bowuyuan cang – Gu taoci ziliao xuancui (Highlights of Ceramic Research Material in the Collection of the Palace Museum), vol. 2, Beijing, 2005, nos. 134-135; and also discussed and illustrated by Wang Jianhua in ‘Gugong Bowuyuan gu taoci ziliao yanjiu’, Gugong Bowuyuan bashi huadan, gu taoci guoji xueshu yantaohui: lunwenji (80th Anniversary of the Palace Museum, Proceedings of the International Conference on Academic Ceramic Research) Beijing, 2007, pp. 184-85. However, compared to the current cup, those with prunus blossom are limited in their colour palette, and cannot really compete with the current cup in terms of richness and brilliance of colour. The current cup employs yellow, orange, red, blue, several greens and black enamels to produce a floral scroll which both competes with and complements its rich ruby-red ground.
The second of the two tub-shaped wine cups in the current group is also of a rare design and also probably dates to the early part of the Yongzheng reign. Its distinctive design comprises three lobed and framed cartouches containing floral sprays and with additional flowers appearing on the coral-red ground surrounding the cartouches. A pair of Yongzheng yuzhi red-ground tub-shaped cup of similar size and with the same decoration is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Qingdai hua falang tezhan mulu, 清代畫琺瑯特展目錄 Painted enamels of the Ch'ing dynasty, Taipei, 1979, no. 42; and in Porcelain with painted enamels of Qing Yongzheng period (1723-1735, Taipei, 2014, pp. 62-3, no. 024) (Fig. 3). The size and shape of all three of these cups correspond to those of the Kangxi ruby-ground cup in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, discussed above ((illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, op. cit., p. 11, no. 9). The Kangxi cup in Beijing also has three cartouches against a red ground – these containing floral sprays, with additional flowers outside of the cartouches. While the shape of the cartouches on the Kangxi and the Yongzheng cups is slightly different, the inspiration seems clear. A Yongzheng cup with ruby-ground, also from the Qing court collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, op. cit., p. 93, no. 81) has three cartouches with flowers. However, this cup has a flared mouth and stands on a low foot. Its cartouches have a single-line frame, as opposed to the double-line frames seen on the Beijing Kangxi tub-shaped cup, the coral-ground cups from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the present example.
Like the tub-shaped cups, the coral-red ground bowl in the current group bears an underglaze blue Yongzheng yuzhi mark within a double square on its base. While several Yongzheng variants of bowls with floral designs against a coral-red ground are known, the arrangement seen on this bowl appears to be the most complex and also the most delicately painted. The choice of flowers is also the most varied and the most auspicious. The daylilies xuancao 萱草 have a number of auspicious associations. Xuan is a metaphor for mother, and so daylilies honour one’s mother. They are sometimes called wangyoucao 忘憂草 ‘the plant that dispels grief’, or yi’nancao 宜男草 ‘boy-favouring herb’. In the case of the latter name, it was thought that, if a woman wore a daylily throughout her pregnancy, she would have a male child. The edible flower of this plant was not only used in cooking, but in medicine as an analgesic. Poppies, which also feature in the decoration on the bowl, also have several names. One of these is yumeiren 虞美人 Beautiful Yu, which refers to Yuji, the beautiful and passionately devoted concubine of the famous warrior Xiang Yu (233-202 BCE). Other names are wucao 舞草 ‘dancing herb’, which refers to the fluttering of the flower’s delicate petals in the breeze, and lichuncao 麗春草 ‘herb of beautiful spring’. Another name for poppies is jinbeihua 錦被花 ‘brocade blanket flower’, and when, as on the bowl, the poppies are combined with peonies - fuguihua 富貴花 ‘the flower of wealth and honour’, they suggest the phrase yijin fugui 衣錦富貴 ‘may you be clothed in brocade and enjoy wealth and honour’ – a reference to the fact that in traditional China those who held high official posts wore brocade. Dianthus or pinks also appear on the bowl. They are relatively rare as a motif on Chinese ceramics, but on this vessel are well-painted in a range of vibrant colours. Indeed, their bright colours are among the things for which they are admired in China, along with their lovely fragrance and the fact that they have a long flowering season which extends from spring through summer. They have long stems and are usually planted in rock gardens and, as a result, they are known as shizhu 石竹 ‘rock bamboo’.
Yongzheng yuzhi-marked bowls with this design against a coral-red ground in famille verte enamels are also in collection of the Musée Guimet, Paris (illustrated in La céramique chinoise ancienne. Paris, 2015, p. 212) (Fig. 4), another, formerly part of the Fonthill Heirlooms collection, is illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition catalogue Iron in the Fire, London, 1988, no. 54, while a further example was sold from the British Rail Pension Fund by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 16 May, 1989, lot 73, and two have been sold by Christie’s Hong Kong – one on 29 April 2001, lot 551 and the other on 29 April 2002, lot 565 (Fig. 5).
Interestingly, the particularly arrangement of flowers seen depicted in famille verte enamels on these bowls appears to have found such favour with the court that it was adapted to famille rose enamels, and appears on a small number of Yongzheng yuzhi-marked bowls decorated in that palette. The famille rose version can be seen on a bowl in the Asian Art Museum San Francisco (illustrated by Terese Tse Bartholomew, The Hundred Flowers – Botanical Motifs in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 1985, no. 18), and another, formerly in the collections of C.T. Loo and of Paul and Helen Bernat, sold by Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 April, 2001, lot 550.
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
The three imperial porcelain vessels which form the focus of this essay were inherited from the collection of Thomas R. Vaughan (d. 1979), who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1908. After graduating from the Law School of George Washington University in 1935, he worked in private practice and for the Federal Government in Washington, D.C., before joining the legal department of the Freeport Minerals Company of New York in 1942. Thomas Vaughan became the company’s executive vice president and general counsel, prior to taking over as president in 1968 and being appointed chairman of the board and chief executive officer in 1969. His fine Qing dynasty porcelain collection was largely purchased from the prestigious gallery of Frank Caro (1904-80). Caro was a longtime associate of the famous dealer in Asian art C.T. Loo (Lu Qingzhai), and in the 1950s took over the running of his gallery on 57th Street, New York. Asian art acquired from this gallery is to be found in many major international museum collections.
All three of the current vessels are decorated with finely-painted overglaze enamel floral designs against red grounds. In China the colour red is associated with happiness and celebration, and so each of these vessels was probably made to mark some auspicious occasion. Two of the porcelains have coral-red grounds, coloured with iron oxide, while the third has a ruby-red ground, which owes its colour to colloidal gold. The size and shape of the two tub-shaped cups - one with ruby-red ground and one with coral-red ground, suggests that they may date to the early part of the Yongzheng reign, since small, relatively deep, tub-shaped cups, without foot rings but with slightly recessed bases, and with straight mouth rims are more characteristic of the Kangxi reign. A Kangxi cup of similar shape and size, with a four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark in rouge enamel, and decorated with pale blue panels reserved against a ruby ground, from the Qing court collection, is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 11, no. 9). It is interesting to note that two other tub-shaped cups of similar size and shape, which bear almost identical decoration of multicoloured flowers against an egg-yolk yellow ground – one with a blue enamel four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark and the other with a blue enamel four-character Yongzheng yuzhi mark – are in the collections of C. P. Lin and Sir Percival David, respectively (see Rosemary Scott, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration – Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, p. 119, nos. 129 and 130). The closeness of form and decoration of these two yellow-ground cups also suggests that the Yongzheng example was made in the early years of the reign – shortly after the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the Kangxi Emperor’s throne. The majority of the small tub-shaped cups of the Yongzheng reign appear to be slightly shallower than the current ruby-ground and coral-ground cups, as well as the yellow-ground cups. An early Yongzheng date for the current red-ground cups is also suggested by palace archival records, which note that on the 16th day of the 7th month of the 4th year of the Yongzheng reign (1726), twenty-four ‘first class red-ground falang wine cups’, with zitan trays, were presented to the Emperor, possibly a reference to wine cups similar to the present examples.
The rare Yongzheng ruby-ground wine cup is superbly painted in jewel-like colours. Those used to create the graceful floral scroll which encircles the exterior of the cup are of a brilliance and clarity that enables them to stand out against the ruby-coloured ground, producing an overall design of particular richness. Two similar cups have been published from important international collections. One is in the collection of Sir Percival David (1892-1964), and is published in Illustrated Catalogue of Qing enamelled Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, revised edition, 1991, pp. 28 and 32, PDF 834 (Fig. 1). Sir Percival David acquired the cup from another well-known collector, Charles Russell (1866-1960), who had published it in 1930 in an article entitled ‘A Series of Ch’ing bowls made by Imperial Order’ in The Collector, vol. XI, 1930, pp. 202-208. Another similar cup was formerly in the famous T.Y. Chao (1912-99) Collection, and was sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4-5 November 1997, lot 1566.
The majority of surviving Yongzheng porcelains with ruby-red grounds are decorated with prunus blossom. A pair of falangcai Yongzheng tub-shaped cups with prunus blossom on a ruby-ground is in the collection of Mr. Alan Chuang (illustrated in The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 278-281, no. 116), and a similar Yongzheng cup was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 30 November 2016, Lot 3218 (Fig. 2). Two Yongzheng falangcai cups, also decorated with plum blossom against a ruby ground, are in the Palace Museum, Beijing. They are both badly damaged and so are in the study collection (illustrated by the Palace Museum Research Centre in Gugong Bowuyuan cang – Gu taoci ziliao xuancui (Highlights of Ceramic Research Material in the Collection of the Palace Museum), vol. 2, Beijing, 2005, nos. 134-135; and also discussed and illustrated by Wang Jianhua in ‘Gugong Bowuyuan gu taoci ziliao yanjiu’, Gugong Bowuyuan bashi huadan, gu taoci guoji xueshu yantaohui: lunwenji (80th Anniversary of the Palace Museum, Proceedings of the International Conference on Academic Ceramic Research) Beijing, 2007, pp. 184-85. However, compared to the current cup, those with prunus blossom are limited in their colour palette, and cannot really compete with the current cup in terms of richness and brilliance of colour. The current cup employs yellow, orange, red, blue, several greens and black enamels to produce a floral scroll which both competes with and complements its rich ruby-red ground.
The second of the two tub-shaped wine cups in the current group is also of a rare design and also probably dates to the early part of the Yongzheng reign. Its distinctive design comprises three lobed and framed cartouches containing floral sprays and with additional flowers appearing on the coral-red ground surrounding the cartouches. A pair of Yongzheng yuzhi red-ground tub-shaped cup of similar size and with the same decoration is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Qingdai hua falang tezhan mulu, 清代畫琺瑯特展目錄 Painted enamels of the Ch'ing dynasty, Taipei, 1979, no. 42; and in Porcelain with painted enamels of Qing Yongzheng period (1723-1735, Taipei, 2014, pp. 62-3, no. 024) (Fig. 3). The size and shape of all three of these cups correspond to those of the Kangxi ruby-ground cup in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, discussed above ((illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, op. cit., p. 11, no. 9). The Kangxi cup in Beijing also has three cartouches against a red ground – these containing floral sprays, with additional flowers outside of the cartouches. While the shape of the cartouches on the Kangxi and the Yongzheng cups is slightly different, the inspiration seems clear. A Yongzheng cup with ruby-ground, also from the Qing court collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum, 39, op. cit., p. 93, no. 81) has three cartouches with flowers. However, this cup has a flared mouth and stands on a low foot. Its cartouches have a single-line frame, as opposed to the double-line frames seen on the Beijing Kangxi tub-shaped cup, the coral-ground cups from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the present example.
Like the tub-shaped cups, the coral-red ground bowl in the current group bears an underglaze blue Yongzheng yuzhi mark within a double square on its base. While several Yongzheng variants of bowls with floral designs against a coral-red ground are known, the arrangement seen on this bowl appears to be the most complex and also the most delicately painted. The choice of flowers is also the most varied and the most auspicious. The daylilies xuancao 萱草 have a number of auspicious associations. Xuan is a metaphor for mother, and so daylilies honour one’s mother. They are sometimes called wangyoucao 忘憂草 ‘the plant that dispels grief’, or yi’nancao 宜男草 ‘boy-favouring herb’. In the case of the latter name, it was thought that, if a woman wore a daylily throughout her pregnancy, she would have a male child. The edible flower of this plant was not only used in cooking, but in medicine as an analgesic. Poppies, which also feature in the decoration on the bowl, also have several names. One of these is yumeiren 虞美人 Beautiful Yu, which refers to Yuji, the beautiful and passionately devoted concubine of the famous warrior Xiang Yu (233-202 BCE). Other names are wucao 舞草 ‘dancing herb’, which refers to the fluttering of the flower’s delicate petals in the breeze, and lichuncao 麗春草 ‘herb of beautiful spring’. Another name for poppies is jinbeihua 錦被花 ‘brocade blanket flower’, and when, as on the bowl, the poppies are combined with peonies - fuguihua 富貴花 ‘the flower of wealth and honour’, they suggest the phrase yijin fugui 衣錦富貴 ‘may you be clothed in brocade and enjoy wealth and honour’ – a reference to the fact that in traditional China those who held high official posts wore brocade. Dianthus or pinks also appear on the bowl. They are relatively rare as a motif on Chinese ceramics, but on this vessel are well-painted in a range of vibrant colours. Indeed, their bright colours are among the things for which they are admired in China, along with their lovely fragrance and the fact that they have a long flowering season which extends from spring through summer. They have long stems and are usually planted in rock gardens and, as a result, they are known as shizhu 石竹 ‘rock bamboo’.
Yongzheng yuzhi-marked bowls with this design against a coral-red ground in famille verte enamels are also in collection of the Musée Guimet, Paris (illustrated in La céramique chinoise ancienne. Paris, 2015, p. 212) (Fig. 4), another, formerly part of the Fonthill Heirlooms collection, is illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition catalogue Iron in the Fire, London, 1988, no. 54, while a further example was sold from the British Rail Pension Fund by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 16 May, 1989, lot 73, and two have been sold by Christie’s Hong Kong – one on 29 April 2001, lot 551 and the other on 29 April 2002, lot 565 (Fig. 5).
Interestingly, the particularly arrangement of flowers seen depicted in famille verte enamels on these bowls appears to have found such favour with the court that it was adapted to famille rose enamels, and appears on a small number of Yongzheng yuzhi-marked bowls decorated in that palette. The famille rose version can be seen on a bowl in the Asian Art Museum San Francisco (illustrated by Terese Tse Bartholomew, The Hundred Flowers – Botanical Motifs in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 1985, no. 18), and another, formerly in the collections of C.T. Loo and of Paul and Helen Bernat, sold by Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 April, 2001, lot 550.