拍品 20
  • 20

A FINE AND RARE PAIR OF INSCRIBED CORAL-RED GLAZED SIMULATION LACQUER CHRYSANTHEMUM DISHES GILT MARKS AND PERIOD OF JIAQING

估價
3,000,000 - 5,000,000 HKD
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描述

each with the sides thinly moulded with forty-eight petals, supported on a tall flared foot conformingly ribbed, the flat centre inscribed in clerical script (lishu) in gilt with a poem of imperial composition, dated Qianlong jiawu (1774) with two seals Qian and Long, the base enamelled black inscribed with a six-character reign mark in gilt

來源

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th October 1992, lot 119.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st November 1999, lot 360.

出版

Sotheby's Hong Kong – Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 355 (only one illustrated).
Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 153.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1834.

Condition

Apart from a little light wear to the tips of the petals and a few small rubbed areas on the interior of each dish, the overall condition is very good. The gilding remains intact on both dishes. One dish is slightly deeper than the other.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

拍品資料及來源

These dishes were modelled after contemporary lacquer pieces with the same inscription and represent particularly successful imitations since no part of the footring is exposed that would reveal the white porcelain body. Similar porcelain imitations are also known of covered lacquer bowls and boxes. The present dishes, which are inscribed with a Qianlong poem (1736-95), but bear a Jiaqing reign mark, may still have been made during the Qianlong Emperor's lifetime, after his abdication in 1795, but before his death in 1799. The poem can be translated:

          The skill of the lacquer craftsmen from Wu is beyond match,
          Their imitations surpass even the works of the ancients.
          For their body, do they use any wood or tin?
          How they are toiling to create their items without cutting and 
          polishing!
          These masterpieces compare with those of Xieqing.
          The colour one associates with Immortals: vapours of flushed
          vermilion.
          In all undertakings it is right to imitate antiquity, this needs to be
          said!
          In my determination to comprehend this, I am startled and become
          very humble.
          Imperial brush of Qianlong in the jiawu year.

The poem was obviously composed for the lacquer vessels rather than the porcelain copies. Wu refers to the region of Jiangsu, where much lacquer was produced. The lacquer dishes have a fabric rather than the more common wooden or pewter core and are therefore surprisingly light. Although they do not directly copy earlier lacquer vessels, thin red lacquer bowls in flower shape were already made in the Northern Song period (960-1127). Xieqing is the style name of the landscape painter Lan Shen, who was active during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, but he may not be the person referred to here. The date is equivalent to 1774.

A lacquer dish of this form, inscribed with the same poem and date, but with the mark da Qing Qianlong fang gu ('Qianlong of the great Qing, imitating the antique'), is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo qiqi quanji [Complete series on Chinese lacquer], Fuzhou, 1993-8, vol. 6, pl. 2 (fig. 0), together with a matching lacquer bowl and cover and a box and cover, pls. 3 and 4. Precise copies of the lacquer dishes, with the same Qianlong reign mark, also exist in porcelain, see 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. 125, for a piece in the National Museum of China, Beijing, and John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. 2, pl. 249. Another Jiaqing-marked dish was included in the exhibition Zhongguo ming tao Riben xunhui zhan [Exhibition of famous Chinese ceramics touring Japan], National Museum of History, Taipei, 1992, catalogue pp. 234-5.