清康熙 豇豆紅釉印泥盒 《大清康熙年製》款

Herman A. E. (1951年逝) 及 Paul C. (1951年逝)

Jaehne 收藏

1941年贈予紐瓦克博物館, 紐瓦克 (館藏編號

41.1968C-D)

The present seal paste box, also known as yinse he or ‘vermilion box’, represents one of eight canonical shapes of peachbloom wares said to have been made for the scholar's tables of the Kangxi court. These pieces, known by connoisseurs as the Badama (‘Eight Great Numbers’), are among the most sought after examples of imperial monochrome porcelain ever produced, admired for their understated forms and dazzling peachbloom glaze. To achieve this dappled coloration, also known in Chinese as ‘apple red,’ ‘bean red’, or ‘drunken beauty,’ artisans of the imperial kilns required the utmost technical precision. Blowing a copper-lime pigment through a bamboo tube onto a layer of clear glaze and covering again with clear glaze to trap the spray in situ, this complex procedure, and the carefully controlled firing that followed, resulted in a spellbinding palette of variegated vermillion, pink and even the occasional green, that continues to inspire collectors and contemporary ceramicists to this day.  

Compare a number of similar seal boxes preserved in important collections around the world: one of several in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, fig. 237; another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 124; and a third in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the museum's Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 11. See also examples sold at auction: one from the Leshantang Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2023, lot 109; another from the collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980) later sold in these rooms, 22nd September 2020, lot 102; and a third, formerly in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the Florence and Herbert Irving Gift, sold in these rooms, 10th September 2019, lot 42.