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A DELICATE AND RARE YONGZHENG POPPY BOWL Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar Even before it entered the Au Collection, this bowl had been in several prestigious international collections. It was formerly in the collection of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), who established the famous Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland. It was subsequently sold in October 1953, entering the collection of Mrs. Walter Sedgwick (1883-1967, Alice Marquita), who had loaned many pieces from her important collection to the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London in 1935-6. While between 1968 and 1976 the bowl was in the collection of Frederick William Alexander Knight, who had begun his Asian art collection in the 1950s. Imperial Yongzheng bowls of this size delicately enamelled with poppies are extremely rare. A comparably-sized bowl with similar decoration was donated to the British Museum, London in 1927 by Oscar Charles Raphael (1874 – 1941) (see: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1927-1216-1). A further pair of similar bowls from the collection of James D. Thornton (b. 1921) – which had been purchased from Frank Caro, New York in the 1960s - was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong in November 2017, lot 2806 (fig. 1). In addition to the exceptional quality of both the porcelain and the painted enamels shared by these bowls, there are two important features which set them apart from other ‘poppy’ bowls. Firstly, the enamel decoration begins at the foot of the bowls, continues up the exterior sides, and then extends over the rim to the interior of the vessels - a design concept known as guozhihua - flowering branch passing over [the rim]. It was a technique which required great skill when depicting tree branches, but which required an even more skilful artist when depicting the slender, slightly angular stems of poppies. This decorative device was also sometimes known as guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall), which suggests the sound of the phrase changzhi, which in turn implies long peace under good government. This would provide a compliment to the reigning emperor and a wish for his longevity. Guozhihua decoration is generally associated with especially fine enamelled porcelains of the Yongzheng reign. Because of the complexities of the scheme, guozhihua was more often used on dishes, where the more open surfaces made the task of painting it a little easier. Application to bowls would have rendered the task more difficult because of the restricted working space, thus requiring a master painter, whose skill can also be seen in the exceptionally delicate handling of the enamels. Secondly, the current bowl, the Thornton bowls, and the Raphael bowl all bear a six-character underglaze blue Yongzheng mark, written in clerical script, within a double square. Smaller imperial Yongzheng bowls with poppy decoration also bear underglaze blue six-character marks, but they appear within either a single or double circle – see for example two bowls from the collection of Sir Percival David with diameters of 9.1 and 9.3 cm. The David bowls appear in Illustrated Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Revised Edition, London, 1991, pp. 25 and 41, nos. PDF 821 and 878, with a black and white illustration of PDF 821. PDF 878 is illustrated in colour by Rosemary Scott in Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration – Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London and Singapore, 1992, p. 138, no. 157. These smaller bowls do not have guozhihua decoration, but simply scattered petals, nuts, and fruit on the interior. The Yongzheng underglaze blue mark within a double square is found on one other group of imperial Yongzheng enamelled porcelains. The finest of the Yongzheng ‘peach’ dishes, with guozhihua decoration, also often bear Yongzheng six-character marks within a double square. It seems probable that this was a deliberate reference to the much-prized imperial doucai wares of the Chenghua reign, which, in the latter part of the reign, bore six-character reign marks within double squares – similar in style to those on the current Yongzheng bowl, the British Museum bowl and the pair from the Thornton collection. The poppies, which are painted with such exceptional skill on the current porcelain bowl, not only provide exquisite floral subjects, but also have auspicious associations, and were a favoured subject among late 17th and 18th century painters on silk and paper – including the famous Yun Shouping (惲壽平 1633-90). Poppies are known by various names in China, one of which is yumeiren 虞美人 Beautiful Yu. This 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’.
A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE YANGCAI ‘POPPY’ BOWL
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
Details
A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE YANGCAI ‘POPPY’ BOWL
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
5 ¼ in. (13.3 cm.) diam.
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
5 ¼ in. (13.3 cm.) diam.
Provenance
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968) Collection
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 23 October 1953, lot 32
Mrs. Walter Sedgwick (1883-1967) Collection
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 2 July 1968, lot 152
F.W.A. Knight Collection
Bluett, London, 9 June 1976
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 23 October 1953, lot 32
Mrs. Walter Sedgwick (1883-1967) Collection
Sold at Sotheby’s London, 2 July 1968, lot 152
F.W.A. Knight Collection
Bluett, London, 9 June 1976
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd
Brought to you by
Sherese Tong (唐晞殷)
VP, Senior Specialist
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