A robin's-egg glazed Yixing square teapot and cover, Qing dynasty, late 18th century | 清十八世紀晚期　紫砂爐鈞釉方壺

Spink & Son Ltd, London.

Collection of Frederick M. Mayer (1899–1974).

Christie’s London, 24th/25th June 1974, lot 109.

Yixing wares caught the eye of the Kangxi Emperor when he started the development of enamelling on porcelain. See four enamelled Yixing teapots and covered bowls illustrated in Qing gongzhong falangcai ci tezhan / Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1992, cat. nos 8-12. The square shape of the present teapot is believed to have been introduced by the potter Hua Fengxiang during the Kangxi period; see K.S. Lo, The Stoneware of Yixing, From the Ming period to the Present Day, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 87-89. It became very popular after the Yongzheng period, when potters started applying robin’s-egg glaze to it. Besides the glazed teapot illustrated in the aforementioned K.S. Lo publication, col. pl. XXIX, quite a number of examples appear at auction, including one sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th October 2003, lot 711; and one sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2008, lot 121. Slightly different from these examples, the mouth and cover of the present teapot appear taller and straighter, while the handle is wider at the top, whereas the others are flatter and even.

See a round body example from the Qianlong period in the Qing Court Collection, marked Jingxi Sun Wei Zheng Zhi, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 189.

來源

史賓克，倫敦

Frederick M. Mayer（1899-1974年）收藏

倫敦佳士得1974年6月24至25日，編號109