A fine and rare coral-ground famille-verte 'floral' bowl, Yuzhi mark and period of Kangxi | 清康熙 珊瑚紅地五彩九秋同慶盌 《康熙御製》款

A Swedish private collection.

Bonham's Hong Kong, 24th November 2010, lot 257.

瑞典私人收藏

香港邦瀚斯2010年11月24日，編號257

This bowl belongs to a small group of wares adorned with vibrantly coloured designs over a dark-coloured ground, and with yuzhi reign ('made for imperial use of ...') marks. These are rare and suggest a closer relationship to the imperial court. Wares enamelled in the imperial workshops in the Forbidden City of Beijing rather than by the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, bear such yuzhi marks, but in overglaze-blue or pink enamel, since the plain white porcelains came from Jingdezhen fully glazed and fired. The significance of the underglaze-blue yuzhi mark, which would have been added at Jingdezhen, has been much discussed, especially since identical bowls are also known with underglaze-blue nianzhi marks. It has been suggested that such bowls were enamelled in the Palace in Beijing, with only the mark inscribed at Jingdezhen before firing. They seem, however, very different from the typical Kangxi porcelains from the Beijing palace workshops, and are part of a small but well-known range of pieces with the same design painted in the characteristic Jingdezhen wucai ('five colour') palette of the Kangxi period, which in the West is known as the famille-verte. It is therefore most likely that they were decorated in Jingdezhen, even if their marks may indicate direct use at the palace. Hugh Moss in By Imperial Command. An Introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hong Kong, 1976, p. 82, discusses wares of this type and notes that until the craftsmen of Jingdezhen became acquainted with the newly developed famille-rose palette of the Palace Workshops, they continued to work in the dominant style of the Kangxi period.

Bowls of this type are held in important private and museum collections worldwide; a pair in the Taipei Palace Museum, is illustrated in Porcelain with Painted Enamels of Qing Yongzheng Period, Taipei, 2013, pl. 21; one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is published in Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 95; another in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 653; a pair, from the Edward T. Chow collection and now in the S.C. Ko Tianminlou collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 89, was sold in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 143; and another pair from the T.Y. Chao and Meiyintang collections, published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 1994-2010, no. 1724, was sold several times at auction, most recently in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 4.

Similar bowls with Yongzheng yuzhi, Yongzheng nianzhi, as well as six-character Yongzheng and Qianlong reign marks are illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV. Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 158-60 and 166, together with a rare Palace Workshop example with a Kangxi yuzhi mark in puce enamel, pl. 123.

此類瓷盌於深色地上施繪繽紛鮮亮紋飾，底款署「御製」，極為少見，並顯示其製瓷目的，與宮廷密不可分。宮中造辦處繪造之釉上彩瓷，底署釉上藍料或胭脂紅料「御製」年款，有別於署書於景德鎮之釉下青花「御製」款。由於這種五彩花卉盌亦有見青花「年製」款之作例，青花「御製」款之意義和重要性，歷來備受闡釋討論。 有說此類帶青花「御製」款瓷盌，是於景德鎮官窰廠署款燒製成白釉瓷盌後，運至北京內府作坊加彩。然其風始終迥異於典型康熙朝造辦處之加彩瓷作，相反，它們更近似一類景德鎮生產，以典型康熙五彩色釉繪相同構圖之御瓷。由此可見，青花「御製」年款意味著器物是為皇帝或近室直接使用而製，但彩繪燒製仍是在景德鎮官窰完成。莫士撝在專著《御製》中，提及此類紋飾構圖盛行於康熙一朝，直至景德鎮御窰熟作北京造辦處傳來創新發展之粉彩瓷繪技法（香港，1976年，頁82）。

此類瓷盌藏於重要博物館及私人收藏，台北故宮博物院藏有一對，刊於《金成旭映：清雍正琺瑯彩瓷》，台北，2013年，圖版21。上海博物館有一盌，錄於汪慶正編，《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄》，香港，1998年，圖版95。三藩市亞洲藝術博物館也有一盌，錄於賀利，《Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide》，倫敦，1996年，圖版653。仇焱之舊藏還有一對，後於香港蘇富比1980年11月25日售出，編號143，現為天民樓收藏，曾展於《天民樓藏瓷展》，香港藝術館，香港，1987年，編號89。另一對則先後經趙從衍及玫茵堂收藏，錄於康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，卷4，倫敦，1994-2010年，編號1724，數度由香港蘇富比售出，最近一次為2011年4月7日，編號4。

近似瓷盌數例，分別帶「雍正御製」、「雍正年製」四字、及「大清雍正年製」、「大清乾隆年製」六字款，刊錄於《徐氏藝術館．陶瓷篇IV．清代》，香港，1995年，圖版158-160及166，同錄一罕見造辦處作「康熙御製」胭脂紅料款琺瑯彩瓷盌，圖版123。