A SUPERB AND EXTREMELY RARE FAMILLE ROSE APPLE-GREEN-GROUND DOUBLE-GOURD VASE

THE PROPERTY OF AN ASIAN COLLECTOR

细节

A SUPERB AND EXTREMELY RARE FAMILLE ROSE APPLE-GREEN-GROUND DOUBLE-GOURD VASE
QIANLONG IRON-RED SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Well potted and enamelled against a brilliant green ground with an opulent design of fantastic flower sprays comprising large exotic blooms surrounded by curly foliage bearing buds and smaller blossoms, all around the bulbous lower body and pear-shaped upper bulb, the two sections divided by a narrow waist decorated with bands of upright lappets, white and iron-red geometric designs and ruyi-heads, surmounted by a cup-shaped mouth encircled by iron-red ruyi and pendent lappets, all raised on a slightly splayed foot with further floral lappets, the interior and base with a fine turquoise enamel (small areas of enamels retouched)
14 5/8 in. (37.2 cm.) high, box

来源

From the Fonthill Heirlooms, sold in our London Rooms, 18 October 1971, lot 86, part of the Collection acquired in 1860 by Lord Loch of Drylaw, and subsequently acquired by Alfred Morrison; and later by Lord Margadale of Islay, sold in our London Rooms together with a large quantity of related vases and other Imperial porcelains all from the Fonthill Heirlooms Collection.

出版

Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, London, 1984, p. 245, no. 10

拍品专文

Vases of this shape with a waisted section and cup-shaped mouth are extremely rare in the Qianlong period. Only one other vase of the same shape dated to this period appears to be known, from the Qing Court collection, a famille rose turquoise-ground vase decorated in imitation of cloisonne enamel, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commerical Press Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 115. A slight variation on this shape is seen on another vase, also from the Fonthill Heirlooms and the collection of John Morrison, Illustrated by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelains, London, 1971, pl. CVIII, fig. 1, where the upper bulb of the double-gourd vase has an elongated, rather than cupped, mouth rim.

Cf. other examples of related lime-green-ground famille rose vases with similar designs of elaborate floral sprays: a Qianlong bottle vase was included in the Nanjing Museum exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 96; a Tibetan-style vase illustrated in Qing Dai Ciqi Shang Jian, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 148; and a pair of bottle vases also originally from the Fonthill Heirlooms, sold in these Rooms, 20 March 1990, lot 679.