• Christies auction house James Christie logo

    Sale 2188

    THE IMPERIAL SALE

    Hong Kong

    |

    30 May 2005

    Browse Sale
Previous Lot
Search
Next Lot
    • A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE IMPE
    Lot 1263

    A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE IMPERIAL FAMILLE VERTE CORAL-GROUND BOWL

    Price realised

    HKD 4,040,000

    Estimate

    HKD 1,500,000 - HKD 2,000,000

    Follow lot

    A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE IMPERIAL FAMILLE VERTE CORAL-GROUND BOWL
    KANGXI YUZHI RUBY ENAMEL FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE-SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

    The deep slightly flared sides finely painted with exotic flowers and vegetation rising from the foot rim, the flowers including peony, dianthus, daisy and lily in aubergine, yellow, pale blue and shades of green enamels, all with delicately drawn black and iron-red outlines on a rich coral-red ground, the centre of the interior naturalistically painted with a peanut, loquat, hazelnut, melon seed and other fruit, the base bearing the ruby-enamel mark
    4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm.) diam., box

    Contact us

    • Contact Client Service

      info@christies.com

      New York +1 212 636 2000

      London +44 (0)20 7839 9060

      infoasia@christies.com

      Asia +852 2760 1766

    Lot Essay

    Only one other example of this type of bowl with a ruby-enamel Kangxi yuzhi mark and the depiction of fruit and nut on the interior, is known, previously sold in these Rooms, 29 September 1992, lot 575, and illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 123.

    The famille verte decoration on the exterior is seen on several bowls with underglaze-blue Kangxi yuzhi marks, including one illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Shanghai, 1998, p. 140, figs. 95-1 and 95-2; one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated by H. Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 74; and another sold in these Rooms, 1 November 2004, lot 888.

    Although the scattered fruit and nuts are rarely found on bowls of this type, they are, nevertheless, seen on other Kangxi-marked bowls and cups, mostly those with ruby-enamelled exteriors. Compare with the pair of ruby-back winecups from the T. Y. Chao Collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 131; another pair from the Paul and Helen Bernat Collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 15 November 1988, lot 49; and one more pair from the Ton-Ying Collection of 1930, sold at the American Art Association, Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, 24 January 1930, lot 310. The execution of the fruit and nut on the Tsui Museum bowl and the present example is finer and more naturalistic than on the ruby-back examples.

    Other information

    Pre-Lot Text

    THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN GENTLEMAN

    Recommended features

      • Collecting Guide: Lalique
      • Collecting Guide: Lalique

        Specialist Joy McCall answers key questions for collectors of the glassmaker’s exquisite pieces. Illustrated with lots offered in the Lalique sale on 15 May

      • A leap into space: Malevich’s
      • A leap into space: Malevich’s Suprematist Composition

        Offered in May, a 1916 canvas that was included in every major survey of Malevich’s Suprematist works during his lifetime, and which revolutionised modern art

Share
Email
Copy link
Share
Email
Copy link