A Pair of Famille-Rose 'Chrysanthemum' Dishes Marks and Period of Yongzheng

each of flower shape, enamelled with branches of flowering chrysanthemum forming a large central medallion, the flowers coloured in pink, yellow and blue and striped in pink and green in foliage in shaded tones of yellow, green and turquoise with blue-grey and brown stems, the well divided into twenty-four flutes and the rim correspondingly shaped

Collection of T.Y. Chao.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19th May 1987, lot 313.
Shimentang Collection.
Eskenazi, London, 5th September 2012.

Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 105.
Ch’ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 71.
Chingtechen Porcelain of the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat. no. 92.
Qing Porcelain from a Private Collection, Eskenazi, London, 2012, cat. no. 5 and frontispiece.

The overall condition is excellent, with the exception of a tiny burst bubble of approx. 0.1 cm to the 5 o'clock position of one dish (faintly visible on p. 119 of the catalogue). The enamel has been very well preserved with no apparent loss.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the Footsteps of Yun Shouping
Regina Krahl

Jingdezhen’s last great innovation – the only one after the 14th century – was the development of a new, harmonious and irresistibly appealing combination of enamel colours: the creation of the fencai (famille rose) colour scheme. It was achieved through the independent production of two new enamels, rose-pink and white, which had been brought from Europe to enamelling workshops at the court in Beijing in the last years of the Kangxi period (1662-1722) and were almost immediately successfully reproduced at Jingdezhen. It was only in the Yongzheng period (1723-35), however, that innovative styles of decoration were devised to use the new pastel shades to best advantage.

Jingdezhen’s porcelain painters did not have to look very far for inspiration. A major painter, later classified as one of the Six Masters of the Qing dynasty, had just introduced a new manner of flower painting that became very popular and was much copied, and provided the ideal model both for an attractive combination of enamel tones and a seductive way of rendering flowers. Yun Shouping (1633-1690), himself inspired by flower painting of the Song dynasty (960-1279), had created a ‘boneless’ style without black ink outlines, by building up petals and leaves instead through different tonalities of colour. Flowers, often in tones of pink or pale purple, were shaded through the use of lead-white, which made the colour washes opaque and enabled the creation of many pastel shades – in exactly the same way as the new lead-arsenic white enamel could be used on porcelain, thus completely transforming the traditional wucai (famille verte) palette. The exquisite way Yun Shouping devised to make up each flower petal of several different enamel shades and depict leaves twisted and turned, using different tones for their under and upper sides, can be seen, for example, in a hanging scroll by Yun depicting chrysanthemums growing behind rocks, sold in these rooms, 6th April 2010, lot 736 (fig. 1). This was closely emulated by the painters at Jingdezhen.

The present pair of chrysanthemum-shaped and -decorated dishes appears to be unique. This chrysanthemum design was, however, used again on dishes of less distinct chrysanthemum shape, with lobed sides and straight, everted rim. Two pairs of such dishes, both with the designs not identical, but varied, were sold at auction, one pair from the A.E. Hippisley collection at Anderson Galleries, New York, 30th January 1925, lot 57; the other pair recently sold in these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 203 (fig. 2); a single dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is included in Kokyū Shin shi zuroku/Illustrated Catalogue of Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Republic of China, Tokyo, 1980-81, vol. I, pl. 98; another in Ryūsen Shūhō. Sōgyō shichijū shūnen kinen/Mayuyama: Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. I, no. 1064; a third from the collections of C.M. Moncrieff and John F. Woodthorpe and now in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany, sold at Sotheby’s London 9th December 1952, lot 139 and 6th April 1954, lot 102, at Christie’s Hong Kong 31st October 1994, lot 672, is illustrated in Giuseppe Eskenazi with Hajni Elias, A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, p. 343, no. 418; a fourth from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat, was sold in these rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 47, and 29th October 1991, lot 257, and at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st May 1995, lot 671.

Several dishes of the same chrysanthemum form as the present pair, with lobed rim, are recorded, painted in the centre with peonies, variously arranged in form of a circular medallion: two single dishes from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pls. 58 and 59 (fig. 3); a pair was sold in these rooms, 16th May 1977, lot 211; another pair 21st May 1980, lot 227, one of them illustrated in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 96; and a single dish was sold in these rooms 27th April 1993, lot 207 and at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th April 2000, lot 586.

Dishes of this form were in the Yongzheng period sometimes left unpainted as monochrome white wares and some were later enamelled in the Republican period. A monochrome white dish of this form in the Meiyintang collection is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1781, and others were sold in these rooms, 30th April 1991, lot 84; 7th May 2002, lot 503 and again 9th October 2007, lot 1533.