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Lot Essay
The present ewer features a flared mouth with a short spout, a long slender neck with a raised ring, and a rounded body moulded with chrysanthemum petals at both upper and lower halves. The neck and shoulder are connected with a curved handle, and the ewer is covered overall in a flambé glaze of lustrous purplish-red colour.
This vessel form, known as a huajiao (flower waterer), was designed for watering plants and derived from metalwork prototypes of the Middle East. Porcelain examples can be traced to the early Ming dynasty's Yongle and Xuande periods, both with and without handles, and mostly decorated with waves, scrolling flowers, and lotus petals as main motif. During the Qing dynasty, it was rare to find forms derived from such foreign prototypes. Yongzheng ewers also exist both with handles and without, and most commonly seen in blue and white porcelains. A closely related Yongzheng blue and white chrysanthemum ewer with a handle is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection no.: guci008222N (fig. 1); another Yongzheng blue and white example without a handle is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection no.: gu001495 (fig. 2). Vessels of this form are also known with other monochrome glazes, see a celadon-glazed Yongzheng ewer of same vessel shape moulded with same decoration, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection no.: zhongci000227N (fig. 3).
Aside from the present ewer, only a very small number of vessels of identical form covered with flambé glaze and impressed with a four-character Yongzheng mark, appear to be known. For a related ewer with flambé glaze colour as brilliant as fire, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuguan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum Collection], vol. 1, part II, Beijing, 2005, pp. 314-315, pl. 143 (fig. 4).
This vessel form, known as a huajiao (flower waterer), was designed for watering plants and derived from metalwork prototypes of the Middle East. Porcelain examples can be traced to the early Ming dynasty's Yongle and Xuande periods, both with and without handles, and mostly decorated with waves, scrolling flowers, and lotus petals as main motif. During the Qing dynasty, it was rare to find forms derived from such foreign prototypes. Yongzheng ewers also exist both with handles and without, and most commonly seen in blue and white porcelains. A closely related Yongzheng blue and white chrysanthemum ewer with a handle is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection no.: guci008222N (fig. 1); another Yongzheng blue and white example without a handle is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection no.: gu001495 (fig. 2). Vessels of this form are also known with other monochrome glazes, see a celadon-glazed Yongzheng ewer of same vessel shape moulded with same decoration, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection no.: zhongci000227N (fig. 3).
Aside from the present ewer, only a very small number of vessels of identical form covered with flambé glaze and impressed with a four-character Yongzheng mark, appear to be known. For a related ewer with flambé glaze colour as brilliant as fire, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuguan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum Collection], vol. 1, part II, Beijing, 2005, pp. 314-315, pl. 143 (fig. 4).