A pair of large and rare copper-red and underglaze-blue 'Tang Ying' vases, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng / Qianlong period

Marchant, London.

Christie's Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 551.

Christie's New York, 20th September 2013, lot 1313.

Marchant - One Hundred Years, Marchant, London, 2025, pp 284-5, pl. 507.

This refined pair of vases belongs to a small and highly coveted group of porcelain bearing the Taocheng Tang (‘Hall of Accomplished Porcelain’) seal, closely linked with Tang Ying (1682–1756), the legendary Superintendent of the Imperial Kilns at Jingdezhen. During his tenure, particularly in the late Yongzheng and early Qianlong reigns, porcelain production reached unprecedented heights of quality and innovation. Tang Ying is credited with some of the most important technical breakthroughs and imaginative designs in the history of Chinese ceramics, and works marked with his seal are of exceptional rarity. Pieces of this group are notable for their fine potting and sophisticated painting, qualities on par with imperial wares, though they do not bear reign marks. Freed from the strict demands of the court, Tang Ying could pursue a more personal aesthetic in these vessels, which embody a literati taste for reinterpreting the great traditions of painting and calligraphy.

The present vases exemplify this refined literati taste, with one side decorated with a pictorial scene and the reverse inscribed with an extended calligraphic inscription. One vase features an excerpt from Sun Guoting’s Treatise on Calligraphy (Shu Pu), while the other is inscribed with a passage from Wang Xizhi’s Seventeen Posts (Shiqi tie), two highly influential texts in the history of Chinese calligraphy. Each inscription is preceded by the oval Taocheng Tang seal and followed by a phrase attributing the work to Wu Yue of Maoyuan. Wu Yue is recorded as an official active in Yixing, Jiangsu province, between 1755 and 1756.

Two further vases belonging to this group, decorated with a crane standing on top of rockwork below a flowering peony tree, were sold in our New York rooms, 21st March 2018, lot 529: the reverse of one similarly inscribed with an extract from the Qingyan tie by Wang Xizhi and the other with the Danxi tie, and both with the same seals as the present vases. Another single vase from the group, depicting two magpies perched on a blossoming plum tree, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 3186, the reverse inscribed in cursive script with a poem, together with the Taocheng Tang seal and a seal reading Wu Pei zhi (‘made by Wu Pei’), possibly in reference to the same Wu as the present. See also a smaller vase of similar form, decorated in underglaze blue and copper red with five deer standing under a tall pine tree, but lacking an inscription and seals, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 23rd May 1971, lot 1261.

Further closely related examples bearing the Taocheng Tang seals include a brushpot of Qianlong reign mark and period, similarly inscribed with Sun Guoting’s Shupu and a seal reading Dianhu dugong, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan Guancang Wenwu Yanjiu Congshu [Studies on the collections of the National Museum of China], Ciqi juan [Porcelain section]: Qingdai [Qing dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 86; and a closely related vase, attributed to the Yongzheng period, preserved in the Qing Court Collection, painted with a peony branch and inscribed on the reverse with a poem in clerical script after Hu Yan (1361-1443), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 196.