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Lot Essay
The exceptional quality of the painting seen on this magnificent vase showcases the advanced technical innovations in porcelain production achieved by the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen during the Qianlong reign (1736-1795), under the supervision of the famous ceramicist Tang Ying (1682-1756). The bright lemon-yellow ground of this vase provides a great richness and clarity that highlights the other enamel colours, including shades of pink, purple, orange and green, to their best advantage. It appears that yellow-ground vessels found particular favour at the Qing court of the 18th century, which continued through to the 19th century. Compare the present vase to other imperial yellow-ground vessels produced at the time, such as a yellow-ground mallet-shaped yangcai vase painted with a ‘double-lotus’ design in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, included in the exhibition Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, no. 28; and a Qianlong mark and period Beijing enamel jarlet, also in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pl. 109. Furthermore, see a similarly finely enamelled double-gourd vase from the collections of Lord Loch of Drylaw, Alfred Morrison, John Morrison, Lord Margadale of Islay and J.T. Tai was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2010, lot 2126.
According to the porcelain inventory of the Qing imperial court archives dated to the 8th day of the 2nd month of the 16th year of the Qianlong reign, corresponding to 1751, a pair of yangcai yuhuchun vases decorated with the jin shang tian hua design were produced and delivered to the imperial court. The auspicious idiom jin shang tian hua, 錦上添花, which may be literally translated as ‘adding flowers to the brocade’, refers to the act of further perfecting something which is already beautiful. The sgraffiato design used on porcelain vessels is called the jin ground in Chinese, 錦地, hence the design of flowers set against a sgraffiato ground are aptly named as jin shang tian hua. The current yuhuhun vase, with its jin shang tian hua design, fits the description of the pair of vases documented in the palace record. One yellow-ground yuhuchun vase previously in a private American collection has an identical shape and design to the present lot, and was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2014, lot 3639. It is possible that the current vase and the one sold at Sotheby’s are the pair of recorded yangcai jin shang tian hua vases, as no other extant examples appear to have been published.
Porcelain inventory of the Qing imperial court archives, dated to the 8th day of the 2nd month of the 16th year of the Qianlong reign, corresponding to 1751, published in Qing gong ciqi dang’an quanji – The complete collection of Qing dynasty imperial palace records for porcelain, vol. 3, Beijing, 2008, p. 388.
According to the porcelain inventory of the Qing imperial court archives dated to the 8th day of the 2nd month of the 16th year of the Qianlong reign, corresponding to 1751, a pair of yangcai yuhuchun vases decorated with the jin shang tian hua design were produced and delivered to the imperial court. The auspicious idiom jin shang tian hua, 錦上添花, which may be literally translated as ‘adding flowers to the brocade’, refers to the act of further perfecting something which is already beautiful. The sgraffiato design used on porcelain vessels is called the jin ground in Chinese, 錦地, hence the design of flowers set against a sgraffiato ground are aptly named as jin shang tian hua. The current yuhuhun vase, with its jin shang tian hua design, fits the description of the pair of vases documented in the palace record. One yellow-ground yuhuchun vase previously in a private American collection has an identical shape and design to the present lot, and was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2014, lot 3639. It is possible that the current vase and the one sold at Sotheby’s are the pair of recorded yangcai jin shang tian hua vases, as no other extant examples appear to have been published.
Porcelain inventory of the Qing imperial court archives, dated to the 8th day of the 2nd month of the 16th year of the Qianlong reign, corresponding to 1751, published in Qing gong ciqi dang’an quanji – The complete collection of Qing dynasty imperial palace records for porcelain, vol. 3, Beijing, 2008, p. 388.