Auction Information

Description

The focal point of Kang Ruijun's collection of Qing Palace porcelain is a pair of imperial enamel colored "Auspicious Clouds and Auspicious Speed" illuminated "Four Seasons Flower" design mallet bottles. The two porcelain vases showcase a typical Beijing painted enamel style, which is particularly precious. The flowers depicted are the same, but the composition is different. The patterns of the two vases are like mirror images, accompanying each other into fun. The bottle body is decorated with four circular openings, with interior paintings of courtyard scenery and seasonal flowers, cleverly moving and harmonious, reminiscent of the Moon Cave Gate in southern Chinese gardens. The composition is elegant, symbolizing good luck and longevity. Four seasons of flowers, represented by southern bamboo and narcissus in spring, Sichuan sunflower in summer, Xuancao and poppy in autumn, roses blooming all year round and evergreen green bamboo in winter. The exquisite white porcelain decoration is as delicate as Beijing's glass body painting enamel ware, leaving a deep impression on people; Compare a small glass bottle from the Qing Emperor Qianlong in the collection of the Forbidden City in Beijing, painted with similar enamel decorations. It is included in Zhang Rong's "Light Condensing Autumn Water: Glassware at the Palace Petals Office", Beijing 2005, Plate 84 (Figure 1). The rendering technique of Shitai Guan in Kaiguang Jing may have been introduced by Western painters who worked in the Qing Palace. Before the Yongzheng period, the western wind had a strong influence on enamel porcelain; Compare a piece of Qing Dynasty Yongzheng enamel with lotus and goose patterns in the collection of Taipei Hongxi Art Museum. The "Yongzheng Year System" style is recorded in James Spencer's "Selected Works of Chinese Ceramics" and Taipei 1990. The blue sky and ground cloud and bat patterns around the opening are rare in the world, with coordinated color combinations. A comparison can be made between a pair of magnetic tire colored cloud dragon flapping bowls in the collection of the National Palace Museum, decorated with blue sky and white clouds, and decorated with rich and colorful blue materials, which are different from the typical Jingdezhen style. They are included in Liao Baoxiu's "Gorgeous Colored Porcelain - Qianlong Colorful Porcelain" (Taipei, 2008, Plate 15). In the catalog, this pair of bowls is called "Yangcai", and in the seventh year of the Qianlong reign, "Huojideng" recorded them as "a pair of magnetic tire enamel painted landscape cloud dragon bowls" (source above, page 266). The enamel colored paper hammer bottle, with a yellow flower pattern on the neck, is similar in beauty to the enamel painted on Beijing copper tire. I believe that the porcelain vase in this photo, like the copper body ware, comes from a similar workshop and is painted by an artist who is proficient in painting enamel on copper and porcelain bodies. Metal body painted enamel was produced in a workshop in Beijing during the Kangxi period, and its style continued until the Qianlong period. It often depicts tangled flowers with thick stems of equal width, serrated leaf edges, clear veins, dark borders, clear contours, and blunt or occasionally pointed hooks at the end. The colors used in the decoration are diverse, but the shadow effect is not very obvious. This painting style was not used by Jingdezhen. The latter painted flowers with tangled branches, which were relatively simple in color, often adorned with feather patterns, with sharp dust or occasional circular hooks at the end, emphasizing light and dark shadows (Figure 2). The dragon pattern belt painted on the bottle shoulder is very similar to the enamel and other enamel colored porcelain made in Beijing (Figure 3), but different from the antique bronze dragon pattern painted in Jingdezhen. The glaze color applied to the bottle is novel, diverse in color, dazzling and eye-catching, with secondary patterns as fine as the lotus petal pattern, and also painted in five colors, which is very different from the common powder colors in Jingdezhen. The difference between Beijing and Jingdezhen in the production of colored porcelain can also be seen in the signature recognition. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the imperial court in Beijing commonly used regular script patterns for making enamel ware. In Jingdezhen, seal script six character blue and white patterns were often used, occasionally replaced by four character patterns of white ground, or even turquoise green glaze blue material. For details, please refer to Forestry Qiang's presentation on December 15, 2009 at the Oriental Ceramics School in London