A fine and outstanding peachbloom-glazed 'chrysanthemum' vase, Mark and period of Kangxi | 清康熙 豇豆紅釉菊瓣瓶 《大清康熙年製》款

Collection of the J.T. Tai Foundation.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 21st May 1985, lot 21.

An East Asian private collection.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th October 2006, lot 1017.

戴潤齋收藏

香港蘇富比1985年5月21日，編號21

東亞私人收藏

香港蘇富比2006年10月8日，編號1017

Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 61.

朱湯生，《中國瓷器：莊紹綏收藏》，香港，2009年，圖版61

Known as jubanping, 'chrysanthemum petal vase', this vessel is remarkable for its pleasing, well-balanced form and delicate strawberry-red 'peachbloom' glaze. The rightfully acclaimed 'peachbloom' glaze, a lustrous, copper-red flecked with pale green, was notoriously challenging to achieve due to the temperamental nature of the copper pigment. This attractive glaze is found only on a small group of vessels for the scholar's table believed to be designed by Liu Yuan, a renowned painter and calligrapher who served the court between 1679 and 1681 (Peter Lam, 'Three Chinese Bannermen and Their Monochromes', Shimmering Colours: Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods, Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 32-47). Considered one of the most iconic groups produced in the early Kangxi period under the supervision of Zang Yingxuan, it includes eight forms: three types of waterpots, a covered seal-paste box and four vases of differing forms, among which is exemplified by the present example. A complete set is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 28.

Copper-red glazes had been largely abandoned at Jingdezhen since the early Ming dynasty and were revived and drastically improved only during the Kangxi reign. To manage the fugitive copper-lime pigment, it is believed to have been sprayed via a long bamboo tube onto a layer of transparent glaze and then fixed with another layer, so as to be sandwiched between two layers of clear glaze. The spotted green flecking, referred to as pingguo qing 'apple green', is possible through a technique using varied concentrations of copper that, when exposed during firing, oxidize to form green spots and modulation.

Other examples of chrysanthemum vases are found in major institutions and collections including one in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 18; the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 204; the National Palace Museum, Taipei illustrated in Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Ch'ing-Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, pl. 2; and another from the Baur Collection illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, vol. III, 1972, pl. A302.

See a vase of this form and decoration from the Jinguantang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 557; an example sold in these rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 314; a vase from the collections of Mrs Mae Caldwell Manwaring Plant Hayward Rovensky and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, sold at Christie's New York, 15th September 2009, lot 447; an example from the J. Insley Blair collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2012, lot 211; and a further vase from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, sold at Christie's New York, 15th September 2016, lot 913.

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, Tokyo, 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 DC.

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

菊瓣瓶器形勻稱大方，雅致悅目，罩施豇豆紅釉，色若果熟嫣紅。這種銅紅釉，偶帶綠斑，色澤雖雅，燒製甚艱，為文房八大碼專屬。豇豆紅八大碼，即太白尊、菊瓣瓶、柳葉瓶、萊菔尊、蟠螭瓶、印泥盒、鏜鑼洗、蘋果尊，誠康熙朝組瓷經典，相信乃由十八至二十年間（1679-1681年）供職內廷的書畫名家劉源設計，在臧應選督窰期間燒製（林業強，〈漢軍三人及其單色釉瓷〉，《五色瓊霞：竹月堂藏元明清一道釉瓷器》，香港，2005年，頁19-31）。紐約大都會藝術博物館存成組豇豆紅八大碼，見《東洋陶磁大觀》，卷2，東京，1982年，彩圖版28。

豇豆紅釉屬銅紅之類，屬性不穩，麗色難求。明初以降，銅紅色釉便無工匠問津，直至康熙年間方見復燒，並有所成。為駕馭銅紅呈色，相信藝匠先以透明釉作底，以竹管吹釉，最後再次罩釉燒成。豇豆紅釉偶因銅料凝聚氧化成蘋果青斑，點綴紅之嫩粉，更添可愛。

相類作例可見於重要博物館及私人收藏，如清宮舊藏一例，圖見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集．顏色釉》，香港，1999年，圖版18。上海博物館藏例，載於《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄 》，香港，1998年，圖版204。台北故宮藏瓶，曾展於《清代單色釉瓷器特展》，台北，1981年，圖版2。鮑氏珍藏且有一例，圖見約翰．艾爾斯，《The Baur Collection》，日內瓦，卷III，1972年，圖版A302。

靜觀堂舊藏也有例可資對比，售於香港佳士得1996年11月3日，編號557。香港蘇富比2005年10月23日也拍出一瓶，編號314。Mae Caldwell Manwaring Plant Hayward Rovensky 夫人故存一例，曾入美國沃茲沃思藝術學院藝術博物館藏，2009年9月15日經紐約佳士得拍出，編號447。J. Insley Blair 藏瓶，則售於香港佳士得2012年11月28日，編號211。紐約大都會藝術博物館還有一例，後於紐約佳士得售出，2016年9月15日，編號913。

同式康熙菊瓣瓶，另可見青釉作例，《世界陶磁全集》載三例，卷15，東京，1983年，圖版32，分別藏於北京故宮博物院、紐約大都會藝術博物館及華盛頓弗利爾美術館。

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，比較兩雍正年製青釉例，足處飾花瓣，售於香港蘇富比1988年11月15日，編號304。