A RARE PEACHBLOOM-GLAZED 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' VASE, KANGXI MARK AND PERIOD

Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 126.

展覽

《求知雅集珍藏•中國古陶瓷展》，香港中文大學文物館，香港，1981年，編號126

Known as juban ping, 'chrysanthemum petal vase', this piece is remarkable for its pleasing, well-balanced form and delicate rose-pink glaze. The remarkable quality and variety of new forms created during the Kangxi reign at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen could hardly be better illustrated than by the five peachbloom vessels in this sale, lots 102, 103, 113, 115 and the present vase. Their fine potting and striking mottled glazes display the technological and artistic advances made at Jingdezhen in this period.

Vases of this form are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; a similar vase from the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 138, pl. 121; one in the Shanghai Museum is published in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 204; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in Special Exhibition of Ch'ing-Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, pl. 2; and a fourth vase from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 52. See two vases of this form and decoration sold in our Hong Kong rooms, one on 8th October 2006, lot 1017 and the other on 23rd October 2005, lot 314; and another from the Jingguantang Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 557. A vase of this type from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, sold at Christie's New York, 15th September 2016, lot 913. See also the example from the J. Insley Blair Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2012, lot 211.

Vases of this form are also known covered overall in a celadon glaze, such as three illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 15, Shogakukan, 1983, pl. 32: one from the Palace Museum, Beijing, another from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the third from the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and two vases in the Widener Collection, published op. cit., pp 101-3.

Of all the innovative forms developed in the Kangxi period, chrysanthemum vases were perhaps the most influential, as they inspired the numerous chrysanthemum-shaped vessels of the succeeding Yongzheng reign (r. 1723-1735). See for example two celadon-glazed vases with Yongzheng marks and of the period, similarly decorated above the foot with petals, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 304. 

本菊瓣瓶比例匀稱，釉色淡雅，屬精佳之品。是次拍賣呈獻五件豇豆紅器（編號102、103、113、115及本品），展示康熙年間景德鎮御窰新穎創作成就。此五器塑形臻美，釉色明艷，斑紋獨特，盡見當時景德鎮科技與藝術發展。

相類作例可見於重要博物館及私人收藏；清宮舊藏一例，現存於北京，圖載於《故宮珍藏康雍乾瓷器圖錄》，香港，1989年，頁138，圖版121；上海博物館亦藏一例，載於《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄 》，香港，1998年，圖版204；另比一例，台北國立故宮博物院收藏，曾展於《清代單色釉瓷器特展》，台北，1981年，圖版2；再比一例，出自大維德爵士故藏，現存於大英博物館，載於《Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections》，卷6，東京，1982年，彩圖版52。另有兩例售於香港蘇富比，2006年10月8日，編號1017及2005年10月23日，編號314；再有一例，靜觀堂故藏，後售於香港佳士得1996年11月3日，編號557。紐約大都會藝術博物館收藏一例，後於紐約佳士得售出，2016年9月15日，編號913。再一例出自 J. Insley Blair 收藏，售於香港佳士得2012年11月28日，編號211。

另可見青釉作例，其中三例圖載於《世界陶磁全集》，卷15，小学館，1983年，圖版32，其一藏於北京故宮博物院，其二紐約大都會藝術博物館收藏，其三出自華盛頓佛利爾美術館；另比兩例，Widener 收藏，前述出處，頁101-3。

康熙年間新創器型當中，以菊瓣瓶最富影響力，啓發雍正年間各式菊瓣型器，比較兩青釉例，雍正年器並款，足處飾花瓣，售於香港蘇富比1988年11月15日，編號304。