A fine ‘yangcai’ porcelain bottle vase with a sgraffito ground

Description:

China, base missing, probably from the Qianlong period
H. 22,4 cm
The pear-shaped vase, with a voluminous, rounded bodybody, a recessed shoulder and a long, cylindrical neck, is decorated on a deep pink background with finely executed, densely arranged sgraffiato spiral tendrils. The body features a symmetrically arranged decoration of stylised lotus blossoms, curving leaf tendrils and floral motifs in polychrome enamel colours, includingturquoise, blue, green, yellow, white and pink. The shoulder is framed by a continuous border of stylised ruyi heads, surmounted by a geometric meander band in blue. The neck is decorated with upright leaf motifs and floral tendrils. The upper rim is formed by a yellow-ground border with a delicate ornamental design. The rich polychrome enamel painting and the carefully structured ornamentation follow the tradition of Qianlong-period porcelain decoration.
European private collection
Sgraffiato or sgraffito - the scraping away of a topto reveal an underlying, contrasting layer - is a versatile technique that has long been used in ceramic art worldwide and gained prominence in China as early as the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and came to the fore once again in the 18th century with the development of the enamel technique on porcelain and the Yangcai colour palette (‘foreigncolours’) in the 18th century. In this labourious technique, a layer of ruby-red enamel is scraped away down to the glazed porcelain beneath, revealing the motif in white. It appears to have been developed at around the same time both in the imperial enamel workshops of the Forbidden City and in the imperial kilns, although the latter produced more delicate, raised motifs than the former, with their more formal diaper backgrounds. Liao Pao Show attributes the introduction of this technique in Jingdezhen to the increased effortsof Tang Ying (1682-1756), the long-serving director of the imperial porcelain workshops, who sought to please Emperor Qianlong after the latter had criticised the porcelain production of recent years; see Huali cai ci: Qianlong yangcai / Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, pp. 10-41 - Base plate lost