14 – M5280
Description
Chinese imperial porcelain doucai and famille rose enamelled conical floral medallion bowl, wan, painted on the exterior with four blossoming flower medallions of peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and prunus, representing the four seasons, the branches and leaves forming the roundel, all between stylised green-glazed branches with buds and lotus petals, beneath two underglaze blue lines at the rim repeated on the foot. The well of the interior with a double butterfly medallion and a prunus flower spray, circled by two pairs of underglaze blue double lines.
The base with a six-character mark of Yongzheng within a double ring in underglaze blue and of the period, 1723-1735.
8 ¾ inches, 32.2 cm diameter.
Provenance & Additional Information
- From the collection of Dr. Wou Kiuan (1910-1997).
- Sold by Sotheby’s London in their sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics, Jades and Works of Art on 25th May 1965, lot 151.
- Sold by Sotheby’s New York in their auction of A Journey through China’s History, The Wou Kiuan Collection, Part I, 22nd March 2022, lot 80, pp. 164/5.
- From the collection of The Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968 to 2022, collection Q.8.18.
- A similar bowl is illustrated in Porcelain in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of The Palace Museum, Volume 38, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 229, p. 250, where the author notes that this use of famille rose enamel together with doucai was produced for the first time on these bowls during the Yongzheng period; another example in the same museum is illustrated by Li Yi-hua in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, 1989, no. 31, p. 202.
- Another bowl of this design from the Chang Foundation and the Hongxi Art Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by James Spencer in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, 141, and also by Regina Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from The Meiyintang Collection, Volume Four (II), London, 2010, no. 1747, pp. 267-269; another was included by Marchant in their 80th anniversary exhibition catalogue of Chinese Imperial & Export Porcelain, Cloisonné & Enamel Wares: Recent Acquisitions, 2005, no. 33, p. 57.
- The flowers of the four seasons, sijihua, are here depicted as peony, fuguihua; chrysanthemum, juhua; lotus, hehua and prunus, meihua. They can form the rebus ni yinian fugui, “may you enjoy wealth and honour throughout the year”. Together with butterflies, hudie, they can form another rebus, fudie fugue, “may you have an accumulation of blessings, wealth and high social status”.
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