An unusual yellow-ground famille-rose vase Shendetang hall mark, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | 清道光 粉彩黃地折枝梅竹圖賞瓶 《慎德堂製》款

Collection of Alfred Morrison (1821-1897), Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire.

The Rt. Hon The Lord Margadale of Islay, T.D.

Christie's London, 18th October 1971, lot 75.

Jen Chai Art Gallery, New York, no. A531 (one of the gallery labels of J.T. Tai & Co.).

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October 2010, lot 2129.

放山居，艾弗瑞．莫里森（1821-1897年）收藏

蘇格蘭艾雷島馬格代爾爵士收藏

倫敦佳士得1971年10月18日，編號75

Jen Chai Art Gallery，紐約，編號A531（戴潤齋公司標籤）

香港蘇富比2010年10月7日，編號2129

This design of loosely distributed sprigs of prunus and bamboo on an intense yellow ground is highly unusual, although the Daoguang period is known for this style of neat, unfussy designs on an intensely coloured ground. Similar decoration appears on an incense burner with puce-coloured ground inscribed with a Daoguang seal mark, illustrated in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, p. 303, fig. 512.

The present design was probably inspired by Yongzheng falangcai designs of prunus branches on a yellow ground, as can be seen on the outside of a bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, 1989, p. 232, pl. 61; and on the outside of a dish in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Museum's Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Taipei, 1992, cat. no. 87.

Shendetang (Hall of Prudent Virtue) was the residence of the Daoguang Emperor in the Yuanmingyuan summer palace in the outskirts of Beijing, where it was located at the western side of the Jiuzhou Qingyan (Palace of Peace in the Nine Regions). Shendetang was completed in 1831, thus making Daoguang pieces with this mark attributable to the two decades between 1831 and 1850; see Ming Wilson, Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, London, 1998, cat. no. 8, where a yellow-glazed bowl with cranes bearing this mark is illustrated, from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

道光一朝，御瓷紋樣雖以有序不紊、色彩鮮明稱著，但見此瓶，黃地散飾梅竹均勻，清雅脫俗，仍屬罕見。相類紋飾可參考道光篆款紅地梅竹香爐，收錄在耿寶昌，《明清瓷器鑑定》，香港，1993年，頁303，圖512。

此飾或受雍正琺瑯彩黃地畫梅枝所啟，比較北京故宮藏雍正盌，錄於《故宮珍藏康雍乾瓷器圖錄》，北京，1989年，頁232，圖版61；或台北故宮藏雍正黃地梅花圖碟，收入《清宮中琺瑯彩瓷特展》，台北，1992年，編號87。

慎德堂1831年落成，位於圓明園九洲清晏，由天子擇為寢宮。慎德堂佈局方正，屋頂呈三卷式，與儒家建築形制大相徑庭，殿中選配之華美瓷器亦合其別樣情致。慎德堂專供瓷器製於1831-1850年間，多新穎富麗，有如此瓶。