AN EXTREMELY RARE AND IMPORTANT IMPERIAL BEIJING ENAMEL BOWL ON COPPER WITH PINK GROUND

Estimated Value:

15.000 € - 25.000 €

Result:

155.400 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

China, four-character mark Kangxi yuzhi in blue enamel and period
D.15,3 cm
The well-proportioned bowl rises from a short base ring with rounded walls to a slightly flared rim. On the outside, it is finely painted in enamel colours on copper with lush flowers in bright shades of yellow, purple, blue and green, each flower modelled with fine gradation on a rich, opaque pink background. The rim and foot ring are gilded, the interior is enamelled in türkis. The base shows a four-character mark in blue enamel in a rectangular cartouche: 康熙御製 (Kangxi yuzhi).
European private collection, in family ownership since before 1970, originally collected in the second half of the 19th century in the diplomatic service in China
Cf. Sotheby's New York, 1st June 1993, lot 101: Rare Imperial Painted Enamel Bowl, Kangxi yuzhi mark and period, painted with large flowers in ochre yellow, lime green, purple and carmine on a blue ground, diameter 15.6 cm; an almost identical bowl with blue ground; National Palace Museum, Taipei, Painted Enamels of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei 1979, pls. 3, 4 & 7: Three Beijing enamel porcelain bowls with related foliage on pink, yellow and ruby-red grounds, each with a four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark in blue enamel; Palace Museum, Beijing; The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, vol. 3, pl. 177: A Beijing enamel bowl on copper with dense floral decoration and four-character Kangxi yuzhi mark, very similar to the present bowl, for an example of this blue-ground bowl at auction see Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3406: A fine and rare blue-ground Beijing enamel bowl on copper, Kangxi yuzhi mark and period.
The present bowl is one of the rarest surviving works from the imperial enamel workshops in Beijing under Emperor Kangxi. The introduction of pink fond in enamel, obtained from colloidal gold according to the European model, was a significant innovation at court. Its use on copper vessels marked a milestone in the development of the early falangcai technique. The inscription yuzhi ("imperially made") attests to the emperor's direct commission and his personal interest in experimental work with enamel colours. As already pointed out in the Sotheby's catalogue of 1993, Beijing enamel bowls on copper with the Kangxi yuzhi mark are of first rarity; apart from the blue-ground bowl in New York (lot 101), only a few other examples are known, which are mainly in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the Palace Museum, Beijing. We have been unable to find another copper bowl of this type with a pink ground. With its bright pink ground, the fine flower tendrils and the clear imperial mark, the bowl embodies the pinnacle of experimental and highly refined enamel art under Emperor Kangxi - a work of great rarity and imperial importance - A small section below the purple-coloured flowers and in the area next to the blue flowers with losses to enamel rest.

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