A PAIR OF COPPER-RED AND CELADON-GLAZED 'WUFU' BOWLS YONGZHENG MARKS AND PERIOD |

each with steeply rising sides flaring subtly at the rim, covered overall in a pale celadon glaze thinning to white at the mouth, with five bats in varying states of flight painted in copper-red to the exterior, the base glazed white and inscribed with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle (2)

Gump's, San Francisco, 1940s (by repute).
Collection of Andrew N. Jergens (1881-1967).

Each bowl is in good condition with only tiny shallow chips to the foot ring.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Exquisitely painted with silhouettes of bats against a luminous celadon ground, these bowls are quintessentially Yongzheng in character. Elegant and unassuming at first glance, they exhibit the skill of the craftsmen in their ability to successfully control the temperamental copper pigment, while hinting at China’s glorious porcelain tradition and conveying portents of good fortune. Bowls of this type appear on the list of porcelains supplied to the court and compiled in 1729 by Tang Ying (1682-1756), the Yongzheng Emperor’s trusted official who in 1726 was sent to Jingdezhen to supervise porcelain production. Translated by S. W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art, London, 1981, p. 198, Tang Ying mentions 'Copies of Lung-ch’üan glaze decorated in ruby red. This is a new process, introduced during the reigning dynasty. There are also the following four kinds of decoration: (1) With three fishes, (2) with three fruits, (3) with three ling-chih, (4) with five bats.' Whilst the combination of copper red and celadon appears to be an innovation of the Qing dynasty, the design was clearly inspired by Ming dynasty prototypes. Bowls and stembowls decorated with silhouettes of animals, fish and fruit originated in the early Ming dynasty, during the reigns of the Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande (1426-35) Emperors. This technique was notoriously difficult and was largely abandoned at Jingdezhen thereafter, until it was revived in the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). Recent research by Peter Lam and other leading scholars indicate that the inspiration to revisit the celebrated but technically challenging pigment occurred in the early years of the Kangxi period, under the direction of Zang Yingxuan, who was sent to Jingdezhen in 1681. By the Yongzheng period, the technique had been perfected and achieved its finest form of expression.

A bowl of this type in the Baur Collection Geneva, is illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 199; one from the W.G. Gulland collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is illustrated in Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 206, and another was included in the exhibition The Wonders of the Potter’s Palette, Hong Kong Musuem of Art, Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 53. Three further examples were sold at auction: one from the Alexander Collection, included in the exhibition Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst [Exhibition of Chinese art], Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 1005, and sold in our London rooms, 7th May 1931, lot 278; and two sold in our Hong Kong rooms, the first from the Edward T. Chow Collection, 25th November 1980, lot 117; and the second sold on 2nd May 1995, lot 119, later sold again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st November 2004, lot 880.

Compare also bowls of this design but on a plain white ground, such as a pair from the Malcolm McDonald Collection, in the Oriental Museum, Durham University, illustrated in Ireneus László Legeza, A Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Malcolm McDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology School of Oriental Studies University of Durham, London, 1972, pl. LXXVIII, nos 218, 219; and another pair sold in these rooms, 12th September 2018, lot 142.

Andrew N. Jergens Jr. (1881-1967), took over as president of the Andrew Jergens soap and toiletries company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, from his father Andrew N. Jergens, Sr. (1852-1929) in 1929.