A reserve-decorated powder-blue 'gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 灑藍地白花梔子花紋盤 《大清雍正年製》款

Collection of Edward G. Kennedy.

Collection of Edward Kennedy Torrington.

Christie's New York, 2nd December 1989, lot 370.

The Meiyintang Collection.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th April 2011, lot 75.

Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 141.

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994–2010, no. 843.

With its white reserve decoration on a cobalt-blue ground this pattern would seem to be ultimately based on prototypes of the Xuande period with a single flower spray in the centre, such as a dish in the Taipei Palace Museum, included in the Museum's exhibition Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pl. 193. A somewhat closer design was developed in the Wanli reign, with four flowers in the centre, for example, on a dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 2, pl. 195.

The early Ming design was also copied more closely in the Yongzheng period, as can be seen on a dish in the Shanghai Museum illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 5-33. Whereas both the Xuande prototype and the Shanghai Museum Yongzheng version are covered with an even, dark cobalt-blue coloured glaze, the Wanli example has the ground painted in underglaze cobalt-blue, and on the present dish the pigment was blown onto the vessel through a tube covered with gauze, which produced this finely speckled powder-blue effect.

A similar dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 248. The Meiyintang collection contains also a blue and white bowl decorated in the same technique, and a similar dish with the design coloured in yellow, see Krahl, op.cit., vol. 2, nos 842 and 844.

來源

Edward G. Kennedy 收藏

Edward Kennedy Torrington 收藏

紐約佳士得1989年12月2日，編號370

玫茵堂收藏

香港蘇富比2011年4月7日，編號75

展覽

《Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang》，Sporting d'Hiver，蒙地卡羅，1996年，編號141

出版

康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，倫敦，1994-2010年，卷2，編號843

以其藍釉地留白，及中心繪飾一朵大型花卉的構圖設計來看，此盤的模仿原型應是來源自宣德時期。這種原例可見於台北故宮博物院收藏，並錄於《明代宣德官窯菁華特展圖錄》（台北，1998年，圖版193）。明萬曆年間創繪、中央飾四朵花卉的設計在圖案上更類近現拍品圖樣，一例現藏北京故宮博物院，錄於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集•青花釉裏紅（中）》（上海，2000年，圖版195）。

以施釉技法而言，雍正年間對早明設計的模仿可謂唯妙唯肖，正如一件刊於陸明華著《明代官窰瓷器》（上海，2007年，圖版5-33），屬上海博物館所藏之雍正作例。與萬曆盤以一般鈷藍釉下青花作留白繪飾不同，宣德作例及上海博物館的雍正盤，皆在白釉上施一層均厚深藍色釉，其中的氧化鈷已溶解。現拍品上的藍釉更是以覆蓋細紗之竹筒吹灑上色，形成如此細緻的灑藍效果。

紐約大都會美術博物館藏有一類同瓷碟，錄於 Suzanne G. Valenstein 著作 , ‹ A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics》（紐約，1989年，圖版248）。玫茵堂珍藏中亦有相同技法的灑藍留白盌，及一灑藍填黃釉、飾相同圖樣的瓷盤，見康蕊君著作，前述出處，卷2，編號842及844。