An extremely fine and rare blue and white double-gourd vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 青花纏枝番蓮紋如意耳葫蘆瓶 《大清乾隆年製》款

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17th/18th May 1988, lot 176.

Shimentang collection.

Eskenazi, London, November 2012.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October 2015, lot 3631.

香港蘇富比1988年5月17/18日，編號176

石門堂收藏

埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，2012年11月

香港蘇富比2015年10月7日，編號3631

Qing Porcelain from a Private Collection, Eskenazi, London, 2012, cat. no. 16.

《Qing Porcelain from a Private Collection》，埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，2012年，編號16

Sotheby's Hong Kong – Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 184.

Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 277.

《香港蘇富比二十週年》，香港，1993年，圖版184

《香港蘇富比三十週年》，香港，2003年，圖版277

The present version of the double gourd vase, with its globular body, waisted form and exaggerated ear-shaped handles, is specific to the Qianlong period (1736-95). It is extremely rare to find a Qianlong vase of this form with underglaze-blue decoration instead of a monochrome glaze. It is clear that the painting of the lotus scrolls and upright and pendent petal lappets on the present vase draws closely on early Ming predecessors, and also deliberately simulates the archaising effect of "heaping and piling" of the blue pigments which is well known from imperial blue and white porcelain of the early Ming. For examples see two blue and white tankards of Xuande mark and period (1425-35), one in Geng Baochang ed., Early Ming Blue and White Porcelain of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2002, cat. no. 94, the other in Helen D. Ling & Edward T. Chow, Collection of Chinese Ceramics from the Pavilion of Ephemeral Attainment, Hong Kong, 1950, vol. I, pl. 38.

For a large blue and white double-gourd vase of Qianlong mark and period, but without handles, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 227. Compare also the better-known tea-dust glazed examples of the same form as the present piece, one in Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Republic of China: Ch'ien-lung Ware and Other Wares, Tokyo, 1981, no. 80; one in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 938; one exhibited in Monochrome Ceramics of Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 100; and one sold in these rooms 17th and 18th May 1988, lot 238. A blue-glazed example with gilt lotus scrolls is published in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Fine Enamelled Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Chien-Lung Period, Hong Kong, 1969, pls. 15, 15a and 15b. A celadon-glazed example with moulded lotus scrolls was included in Ching Wan Society Millennium Exhibition, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 2000, cat. no. 106.

For a double-gourd flask of closely related form, compare an exquisite famille-rose example of Qianlong mark and period, exhibited at the British Museum, London, 1994, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 962, sold in these rooms 16th November 1988, lot 368, at Christie's Hong Kong, 19th March 1991, lot 607, and again in these rooms 5th Oct 2011, lot 23.

Compare also a 14th-century celadon double-gourd vase without handles from Longquan kilns in Zhejiang, illustrated in Asada ke z¿hin tenkan ny¿satsu [Exhibition for Auction of Objects Collected by the Asada Family], Tokyo, 1934, no. 168, and Regina Krahl, op. cit., vol. 4, no. 1607; sold twice in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 676, and 5th October 2011, lot 6.

The double gourd, hulu, was widely viewed in the Ming and Qing dynasties as auspicious, its large number of seeds representing fertility and the wish for numerous sons. It was also an important symbol in Daoism, particularly associated with Li Tieguai, one of the Eight Immortals, who is often depicted with a double gourd at his waist containing elixir of immortality. In addition, the name of the shape, hulu, forms a rebus with the phrase fulu, meaning happiness and prosperity through government positions.

此件青花葫蘆瓶，器腹圓鼓飽滿，纖腰嫋嫋，如意雙耳線條有力，為乾隆時期造瓷巔峰之作。乾隆葫蘆瓶多見單色釉例，飾青花者數目極稀。此瓶之纏枝番蓮及蓮瓣紋，取自明初青花，並以積釉點染，仿繪早明青花官瓷特有的藍黑斑點特徵。可參考二件宣德青花花澆，均書年款，其一錄於耿寶昌主編，《故宮博物院藏明初青花瓷》，北京，2002年，編號94，另一件刊於 Helen D. Ling 及仇焱之，《暫得樓珍藏歷代名瓷影譜》，香港，1950年，卷1，圖版38。

試比較一件乾隆青花粉彩福祿萬代紋活環葫蘆瓶，器形碩大，無如意耳，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集．青花釉裏紅（下）》，上海，2000年，圖版227。亦可比較與此件拍品器形相同的茶葉末釉葫蘆瓶，一件錄於《故宮清瓷圖錄．乾隆窰．嘉慶窰．道光窰》，東京，1981年，編號80。一例錄於康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，倫敦，1994-2010年，卷2，編號938。另一瓶展出於敏求精舍展覽，《明清單色釉瓷展覽》，香港，1977年，編號100。還有一例1988年5月17/18日售於香港蘇富比，編號238。一件描金藍釉纏枝蓮紋葫蘆瓶，載於《故宮藏瓷：清乾隆琺瑯彩瓷》，香港，1969年，圖版15、15a、15b。還有一件青釉模印纏枝蓮紋葫蘆瓶，展出於《千禧年清翫雅集收藏展》，鴻禧美術館，臺北，2000年，編號106。

類同葫蘆尊器形，可比較一件乾隆粉彩花蝶紋如意耳葫蘆尊，曾於1994年展出於倫敦大英博物館，刊載於康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，倫敦，1994-2010年，卷2，編號962，1988年11月16日售於香港蘇富比，編號368，1991年3月19日售於香港佳士得，編號607，2011年10月5日再次售於香港蘇富比，編號23。

另可參考一件十四世紀龍泉青瓷葫蘆瓶，無耳，錄於《淺田家藏品展觀入札》，東京，1934年，編號168，及康蕊君，前述出處，卷4，編號1607，先後售於香港蘇富比2005年5月2日，編號676及2011年10月5日，編號6。

葫蘆多子，象徵富足豐饒，多子多孫，明清二朝視為瑞果。道教神祇八仙之李鐵拐，腰間繫葫蘆，內裝有長壽仙丹，使葫蘆亦成道教重要圖象之一。葫蘆，音似「福祿」，寓意福氣且仕途高陞。