Chinese Art-Asian Antiques News This Week

Bits and Pieces

A MOMENT AMONG THE PEONIES: Sotheby's Asia Week

A MAGNIFICENT FAMILLE-ROSE TIANQIUPING

Lot 111 Sotheby's Sept 19 / Estimate $400,000 to $600,000

In the spring of 1722, looking back at what he had achieved in his sixty-year reign and looking forward to an uncertain future, the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) sat in his imperial gardens admiring the peonies. His son, Prince Yinzhen, had invited him to the gardens and had a platform (The ‘Peony Platform,’ Mudantai) built to help his aging father admire the blooms. Bursting in a rainbow of colors and imperial splendor, gently undulating in the breeze, these peonies – the Emperor’s favorite flower – soothed his worried mind and would soon bear witness to a momentous occasion in the history of China.

Until that afternoon, so the story goes, the future of the Qing dynasty remained uncertain. With thirty-five sons and more than fifty grandchildren mired in attempts to grab at power and secure their positions, the successor to the imperial throne had yet to be chosen and, growing weary with age, the Kangxi Emperor would soon be too frail to go on. Only the fourth-oldest son but less ambitious or dangerous than many of his brothers, Prince Yinzhen had appeared to be a sensible yet uncertain choice for the future of the empire. While clearly a favorite of the Emperor, would Yinzhen have the strength to lead? Would he and his descendants be ready to continue the dynasty his great-grandfather Taizu had begun? At that moment, rustling in the blooms below, the twelve-year-old Prince Hongli, Yinzhen’s son, caught the Emperor’s attention and eased his spirit. The young prince had never met his grandfather before but, in that moment, history was made. The Kangxi Emperor took a liking to the boy, to his father and to his chosen line of succession and, a year later, Yinzhen became the Yongzheng Emperor and Hongli (later the Qianlong Emperor) his crown prince.

This intimate yet monumental moment, uniting the three great Qing emperors for the first time amongst the myriad blooms, must have occurred to the Yongzheng Emperor admiring the present vase. Boldly thrown in a grand tianqiuping form with its luscious peony design swirling around its voluptuous body, the present vase exudes an air of majesty and calm that typifies the Yongzheng period. Grand like the art of Yongzheng’s father before him and magnificent like that of his son’s reign to follow, the present vase epitomizes the extraordinary craftsmanship of the High Qing period. Yet, in its serenity, its bold use of negative space, and subdued composition of blooms against a white ground, the vase retains a sense of austerity, of care, and of meditation typical only of the Yongzheng reign and that quiet yet eventful day in the Summer Gardens.

These luscious peonies continued to inspire the Yongzheng Emperor throughout his brief but illustrious reign; recreated on porcelain, paper and silk alike. Compare, for example, the famous series of 100 paintings by court painter Jiang Tingxi (1669 - 1732), Bai zhong mudan pu [Hundred Species of Peony], presented to the Yongzheng Emperor during his reign and included in The Delicate Beauty of Peony —Special Exhibition of One Hundred Species of Peony Figure Painted By The Court Painter Jiang Tingxi, Long Museum, Shanghai, 2017. This masterwork, delicately rendering each bloom in turn in a hundred brilliant shades, is faithfully recreated in style on the present vase, the brilliant white glaze providing a fitting canvas for the medley of soft colors above. For another similar treatment of peonies on a brilliant white porcelain ‘canvas’ produced for the Yongzheng Emperor, also compare a famous baluster vase still preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 46 (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 A famille-rose ‘peony, magnolia and peach blossom’ vase (Ganlanping), Mark and period of Yongzheng, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in *The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration*, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 46.

These extraordinary pieces, blending the lines between painting and pottery, were facilitated by an equally extraordinary development in the science of porcelain production. In the 6th year of the Yongzheng reign (1728) after decades of experimentation, the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen succeeded in reproducing the white enamel invented in Europe and – with it – created the famille rose palette. Unlike in the more limited palette of famille verte or other earlier lowfired enamels, the development of white enamel in the late 1720s gave artisans the freedom to mix a much broader range of colors and shades for porcelain decoration and apply them with an elegance and intricacy never before seen at Jingdezhen. Elaborate floral motifs like the present, taking full advantage of the newfound pinks, lemon-yellows and shading possibilities of the famille rose palette, soon became staple designs in the imperial kilns and were refined to exacting standards for their imperial patron.

Tianqiuping of Yongzheng mark and period painted with such delicate and superb flower designs are extremely rare with only four other known examples apparently attested: one, formerly in the stock of C. T. Loo, illustrated in Cécile and Michel Beurdeley, La Céramique Chinoise, Fribourg, 1974, col. pls 91 and 92 (Fig. 2); the second from the collection of R. H. R. Palmer in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XC:2 (Fig. 3); the third included in Ching Wan Society Thirtieth Anniversary Catalogue. Works of Art, Taipei, 2025, cat. no. 65; and the fourth sold in our London rooms, 16th June 1999, lot 807, again in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1724, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th May 2014, lot 2914 9 (Fig. 4).

Compare also a related vase with a Yongzheng seal mark, from the collection of Dr. Tamisuke Yokogawa, now in Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in The World's Great Collections. Oriental Ceramics, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 80, painted with similar peonies on the body, but with an additional peony branch on the neck in place of the present magnolia; and a smaller (34.3 cm) pair of Yongzheng tianqiuping painted with chrysanthemum branches in a similar style, from the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan illustrated in Stephen W. Bushell and William M. Laffan, Catalogue of The Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelain, New York, 1907, pl. LV, case F, nos 27 and 28, one of which was later sold in these rooms from the collection of Frederick J. and Antoinette H. Van Slyke, 31st May 1989, lot 221.

If You'd Like What We Do

Please consider joining the BIDAMOUNT Community by becoming a PATREON or Global Member Subscriber and help support this site and our YouTube Channel.

Thank you very much. Peter

$5 Per Month

$ 4 Per Month

CLICK TO JOIN

For the extra dollar a Month I think the Patreon Membership gives more bang for the buck.. Both support the YouTube Channel and maintain this site. ..

Weekly handpicked auction lost in the USA and Abroad as well as access to the AUCTIONEER Report Card, over 450 Auction Houses Graded A to F with comments. $4 a month.

This Week's Videos

A few items we think are nice.