Decade 1720-1729
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Musical instrument Violin Chinese porcelain Qing porcelain Early Qing Jade Dragon
See also : Musical instrument Violin Chinese porcelain Qing porcelain Early Qing Jade Dragon
1721 The Lady Blunt Stradivarius
2011 SOLD for £ 9.8M by Tarisio
The art of Antonio Stradivari has never been equaled. The wood of his instruments was carefully selected, the master was a very clever manufacturer and an excellent mathematician. The secret of the high quality of his violins has however never been discovered.
An interesting hypothesis, not proven, is based on the fact that instruments made at the same time by Andrea Guarneri are approaching the quality of the Stradivarius: the very cold climate of the late seventeenth century would have created less dense wood by slowing the growth of trees.
The Lady Blunt has all the qualities required to excite violinists and experts. Luckily, this specimen is very close to its original state. It was manufactured in 1721, in the best time of Stradivari. It belonged to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, the French violin maker of the nineteenth century who made commendable efforts to understand and achieve the quality of the Stradivarius.
In 2008, this wonderful violin was purchased by Nippon Music in a private transaction whose amount exceeded $ 10M. This Tokyo foundation has decided to sell it to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Tarisio sold the Lady Blunt for £ 9.8M on June 20, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
An interesting hypothesis, not proven, is based on the fact that instruments made at the same time by Andrea Guarneri are approaching the quality of the Stradivarius: the very cold climate of the late seventeenth century would have created less dense wood by slowing the growth of trees.
The Lady Blunt has all the qualities required to excite violinists and experts. Luckily, this specimen is very close to its original state. It was manufactured in 1721, in the best time of Stradivari. It belonged to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, the French violin maker of the nineteenth century who made commendable efforts to understand and achieve the quality of the Stradivarius.
In 2008, this wonderful violin was purchased by Nippon Music in a private transaction whose amount exceeded $ 10M. This Tokyo foundation has decided to sell it to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Tarisio sold the Lady Blunt for £ 9.8M on June 20, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
By Tarisio Auctions. Violachick68 at English Wikipedia - Was sent to me personally, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28827720
1722 Kangxi Falangcai Bowl
2019 SOLD for HK$ 87M by Christie's
The falangcai is the "color of foreigners", following a technology transfer of European enamels on copper from 1693 CE. European enamelers were working side by side with Chinese artists. The contribution of the "foreigners" in this new technique had been the use of powders allowing yellows, reds and blues of an unprecedented brilliance in Chinese porcelain.
The themes are mostly floral. A bowl decorated with flowers in a style inspired by European botanical books was sold for HK $ 240M by Sotheby's in 2018. The flowers are displayed within four lobed cartridges on a pink background enhanced with colloidal gold.
During the 57th year of Kangxi, corresponding to 1718 CE, the workshops that produce the falangcai are changing their location in the imperial palace for reinforcing the direct control by the emperor.
Kangxi is acting at two key points, first to approve the piece in white porcelain provided by Jingdezhen, and then to accept the finished piece. For this emperor, technological development is more important than production and the falangcai bearing his mark are very rare. Most are marked Kangxi yuzhi meaning that they were made for the personal use of the emperor.
The details of the process were developed in that period by the potters of Jingdezhen and Beijing to the direct service of the imperial court. Some pieces appear unique in their combination of shape, size, themes and colors, suggesting an experimental phase.
At the end of his life, Kangxi needs a little calm that he finds in the contemplation of his lotus ponds. He follows for this flower the Confucianist interpretation evoking the simplicity and uprightness of a perfect gentleman. Able to simultaneously display buds, blooming flowers and seed pods, the lotus is also a symbol of past, present and future times.
During the 61st and final year of his reign matching 1722 CE, Kangxi admires a lotus bouquet in ink and colors which had been prepared at his request by the artist Jiang Tingxi. The bouquet includes among others a pink double lotus, symbol of harmony in the couple. The double lotus with two flower heads on a stem is a rarity of nature that gardeners cannot create artificially, just like the four-leaf clover.
A falangcai bowl 11 cm in diameter with the Kangxi yuzhi mark was certainly made in the follow of Kangxi's excitement for the lotus painting. The circumference of the bowl, unlike the bouquet, allows a scrolling observation. The flowers have a great similarity to the model and include three double lotuses. Realism is extreme, including aging leaf edges and holes made by insects.
The splendid colors are now completely differentiated from the enamels imported from Europe. The three basic colors are the ruby-red used for the background, the white and the yellow. The rest of the palette, pink, blue and green, is obtained by chemical additions and mixtures.
The powder for making the red ground was blown by the potter in a bamboo tube through a gauze while the decoration previously painted on the glaze was preserved in reserves. The joint achievement of a perfect homogeneity of the ground and a great sharpness in the outlines of the reserves is a feat requiring the total control of the breath during the blowing.
This bowl was sold by Sotheby's for HK $ 74M on April 8, 2013, lot 101, and for HK $ 87M by Christie's on November 27, 2019, lot 2988.
In a similar style, Christie's sold on November 30, 2016 for HK $ 41M a cup 6.3 cm in diameter, lot 3218. It bears the imperial mark of Yongzheng but several characteristics allow to date it more precisely in the Kangxi-Yongzheng transition, around 1722 of our calendar.
Its footless cup shape was more popular under Kangxi and became rare with Yongzheng. It is decorated with auspicious themes within the ruby-red ground that was already in use under Kangxi. The aesthetic quality of the winding of the blossoming branch of plum throughout the perimeter is more linked with Yongzheng's requirements for a supreme exquisiteness.
The themes are mostly floral. A bowl decorated with flowers in a style inspired by European botanical books was sold for HK $ 240M by Sotheby's in 2018. The flowers are displayed within four lobed cartridges on a pink background enhanced with colloidal gold.
During the 57th year of Kangxi, corresponding to 1718 CE, the workshops that produce the falangcai are changing their location in the imperial palace for reinforcing the direct control by the emperor.
Kangxi is acting at two key points, first to approve the piece in white porcelain provided by Jingdezhen, and then to accept the finished piece. For this emperor, technological development is more important than production and the falangcai bearing his mark are very rare. Most are marked Kangxi yuzhi meaning that they were made for the personal use of the emperor.
The details of the process were developed in that period by the potters of Jingdezhen and Beijing to the direct service of the imperial court. Some pieces appear unique in their combination of shape, size, themes and colors, suggesting an experimental phase.
At the end of his life, Kangxi needs a little calm that he finds in the contemplation of his lotus ponds. He follows for this flower the Confucianist interpretation evoking the simplicity and uprightness of a perfect gentleman. Able to simultaneously display buds, blooming flowers and seed pods, the lotus is also a symbol of past, present and future times.
During the 61st and final year of his reign matching 1722 CE, Kangxi admires a lotus bouquet in ink and colors which had been prepared at his request by the artist Jiang Tingxi. The bouquet includes among others a pink double lotus, symbol of harmony in the couple. The double lotus with two flower heads on a stem is a rarity of nature that gardeners cannot create artificially, just like the four-leaf clover.
A falangcai bowl 11 cm in diameter with the Kangxi yuzhi mark was certainly made in the follow of Kangxi's excitement for the lotus painting. The circumference of the bowl, unlike the bouquet, allows a scrolling observation. The flowers have a great similarity to the model and include three double lotuses. Realism is extreme, including aging leaf edges and holes made by insects.
The splendid colors are now completely differentiated from the enamels imported from Europe. The three basic colors are the ruby-red used for the background, the white and the yellow. The rest of the palette, pink, blue and green, is obtained by chemical additions and mixtures.
The powder for making the red ground was blown by the potter in a bamboo tube through a gauze while the decoration previously painted on the glaze was preserved in reserves. The joint achievement of a perfect homogeneity of the ground and a great sharpness in the outlines of the reserves is a feat requiring the total control of the breath during the blowing.
This bowl was sold by Sotheby's for HK $ 74M on April 8, 2013, lot 101, and for HK $ 87M by Christie's on November 27, 2019, lot 2988.
In a similar style, Christie's sold on November 30, 2016 for HK $ 41M a cup 6.3 cm in diameter, lot 3218. It bears the imperial mark of Yongzheng but several characteristics allow to date it more precisely in the Kangxi-Yongzheng transition, around 1722 of our calendar.
Its footless cup shape was more popular under Kangxi and became rare with Yongzheng. It is decorated with auspicious themes within the ruby-red ground that was already in use under Kangxi. The aesthetic quality of the winding of the blossoming branch of plum throughout the perimeter is more linked with Yongzheng's requirements for a supreme exquisiteness.
#Bestof2019 This rare Kangxi falangcai ‘double lotus’ bowl, once owned by the legendary Chinese porcelain collector Robert Chang, sold for HK$87,200,000 in Hong Kong in November https://t.co/oEETFj8RDK pic.twitter.com/BAMaKjvv33
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) December 28, 2019
1725 Yongzheng Jade Seal
2015 SOLD for HK$ 105M by Sotheby's
The Yongzheng Emperor had an original and exquisite artistic taste. A eunuch serving as a majordomo transferred to the workshops the edicts by which the emperor expressed his desires. The records have been kept. Regarding the seals, an extreme accuracy in descriptions and sizes allows to attribute the pieces.
The 15th day of the 7th month of the third year of the reign, August 22, 1725 in our calendar, the eunuch commissions two white jade seals for the same inscription along with their boxes. Five days later a bronze prototype of the inscription is submitted to an inspection.
Both jade seals are completed in the next month, nine days apart one another. This great speed of execution is explained by the fact that the workshops had re-carved two ancient seals that the emperor himself had probably chosen in the imperial collection before issuing his order.
The smaller of the two seals, 5.5 x 5.6 cm, carved with a dragon in Yuan style, was sold for HK $ 35,4M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2011.
The other seal, reworked from a Kangxi figure, is larger and more ambitious. 7.4 cm high on a square base 6.1 x 6.1 cm, it has the form of a rock on which a hornless dragon or chilong is reclining with a wide open mouth in a threatening attitude. The rock is flanked by eight other chi moving amidst clouds.
This seal is offered with its luxurious original box inlaid in ivory. It was sold for HK $ 105M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M by Sotheby's on April 7, 2015, lot 102.
Both seals narrated above are exceptional. Although Yongzheng has ordered more than two hundred seals during his short reign, only five have been made in jade.
The 15th day of the 7th month of the third year of the reign, August 22, 1725 in our calendar, the eunuch commissions two white jade seals for the same inscription along with their boxes. Five days later a bronze prototype of the inscription is submitted to an inspection.
Both jade seals are completed in the next month, nine days apart one another. This great speed of execution is explained by the fact that the workshops had re-carved two ancient seals that the emperor himself had probably chosen in the imperial collection before issuing his order.
The smaller of the two seals, 5.5 x 5.6 cm, carved with a dragon in Yuan style, was sold for HK $ 35,4M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2011.
The other seal, reworked from a Kangxi figure, is larger and more ambitious. 7.4 cm high on a square base 6.1 x 6.1 cm, it has the form of a rock on which a hornless dragon or chilong is reclining with a wide open mouth in a threatening attitude. The rock is flanked by eight other chi moving amidst clouds.
This seal is offered with its luxurious original box inlaid in ivory. It was sold for HK $ 105M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M by Sotheby's on April 7, 2015, lot 102.
Both seals narrated above are exceptional. Although Yongzheng has ordered more than two hundred seals during his short reign, only five have been made in jade.
#HK #AuctionUpdate: 9 bidders, 14 mins: Imperial White Jade Yongzheng Yubi Zhi Bao Seal sells for HK$104.9m/US$13.5m pic.twitter.com/5p8ODk7WrO
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) April 7, 2015Yongzheng Porcelain
Intro
From the 6th year of his reign matching 1728 CE, the Yongzheng emperor managed a direct control over the production of imperial porcelain at Jingdezhen. Under the supervision of Superintendent Tang Ying, most of the traditional techniques were restarted and quickly raised to a new level of perfection.
1
Dragon Vase
2019 SOLD for RMB 147M by Poly
On June 5, 2019, Poly sold as lot 5552 for RMB 147M a magnificent vase 51 cm high with a round body and a thick neck which is a technological feat without any relationship with the new enamel paintings brought by the foreigners.
This piece flawlessly combines an underglaze in cobalt blue and a red copper glaze which nevertheless required an extremely dissimilar firing profile. The recipe was lost very soon afterward and the Qianlong emperor himself will not get comparable porcelains despite his insistence with the same Superintendent.
The bright red dragon wraps its sinuous body in the blue clouds, in a contrast of superb brilliance. The blue is made in several shades, matching the quality of the Xuande porcelain of the Ming. The glaze becomes invisible over blue and white.
The wide open mouth and the bulging eyes of the dragon express a great fury. This mythical animal has only three claws per leg and cannot be confused with a Qing imperial dragon.
It is a copy of the dragons drawn under the Southern Song dynasty by Chen Rong, assessing Yongzheng's care to promote the best from Chinese graphic art of all times. Copies on silk in the same style were executed in the same period. Please remind that a drawing 35 x 440 cm scrolling six dragons executed by Chen Rong in 1244 CE was sold for $ 49M by Christie's in 2017.
This piece flawlessly combines an underglaze in cobalt blue and a red copper glaze which nevertheless required an extremely dissimilar firing profile. The recipe was lost very soon afterward and the Qianlong emperor himself will not get comparable porcelains despite his insistence with the same Superintendent.
The bright red dragon wraps its sinuous body in the blue clouds, in a contrast of superb brilliance. The blue is made in several shades, matching the quality of the Xuande porcelain of the Ming. The glaze becomes invisible over blue and white.
The wide open mouth and the bulging eyes of the dragon express a great fury. This mythical animal has only three claws per leg and cannot be confused with a Qing imperial dragon.
It is a copy of the dragons drawn under the Southern Song dynasty by Chen Rong, assessing Yongzheng's care to promote the best from Chinese graphic art of all times. Copies on silk in the same style were executed in the same period. Please remind that a drawing 35 x 440 cm scrolling six dragons executed by Chen Rong in 1244 CE was sold for $ 49M by Christie's in 2017.
2
Amphora Vase
2017 SOLD for HK$ 140M by Christie's
The Manchus who overthrew the Ming dynasty are foreigners. When their Qing dynasty is politically stabilized, they are paying an intense attention to relying on the whole of the more than four-thousand-year-old tradition of the Chinese empire. From the reign of Kangxi some workshops in Jingdezhen realize porcelain pieces imitating the antique.
Jingdezhen's chemists and thermal engineers are highly skilled and there is no question of going back to the ancient manufacturing processes. A special effort is made to improve the green glaze imitating the color and transparency of jade, which is named qingci in Chinese and celadon in Europe. During the reign of Yongzheng several hues of celadon glaze are listed.
An amphora vase bearing the imperial mark of Yongzheng appears as a culmination of that development. It was sold by Christie's for HK $ 140M on May 31, 2017, lot 2888. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
The shape of this vase 52 cm high imitates vessels made of metal or earthware in the Tang period, which are no longer amphorae of the antique type since the pointed lower end used to catch the vessel in its lower part for pouring the liquid has been replaced by a usual flat base for installation. He retains from these Tang models the two lateral handles in the shape of dragons biting the rim. The ornament of the neck simulating bamboo rings is a reference to the Northern Song.
Celadon is also an ancient symbol reminding the development of that glaze in the Longquan kilns under the Southern Song dynasty. The bluish-green glaze of this amphora, thick and translucent and leveled in the recesses, is indeed an achievement directly attributable to the engineering of the Qing.
Jingdezhen's chemists and thermal engineers are highly skilled and there is no question of going back to the ancient manufacturing processes. A special effort is made to improve the green glaze imitating the color and transparency of jade, which is named qingci in Chinese and celadon in Europe. During the reign of Yongzheng several hues of celadon glaze are listed.
An amphora vase bearing the imperial mark of Yongzheng appears as a culmination of that development. It was sold by Christie's for HK $ 140M on May 31, 2017, lot 2888. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
The shape of this vase 52 cm high imitates vessels made of metal or earthware in the Tang period, which are no longer amphorae of the antique type since the pointed lower end used to catch the vessel in its lower part for pouring the liquid has been replaced by a usual flat base for installation. He retains from these Tang models the two lateral handles in the shape of dragons biting the rim. The ornament of the neck simulating bamboo rings is a reference to the Northern Song.
Celadon is also an ancient symbol reminding the development of that glaze in the Longquan kilns under the Southern Song dynasty. The bluish-green glaze of this amphora, thick and translucent and leveled in the recesses, is indeed an achievement directly attributable to the engineering of the Qing.
#AuctionUpdate This incredibly rare Yongzheng-period celadon-glazed amphora just sold for US$18,129,688 in HK https://t.co/7B1k4RqKrU pic.twitter.com/5GkAzM45fT
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 31, 2017
3
Dragon Vase
2015 SOLD for HK$ 76M by Sotheby's
The porcelains from the early Qing dynasty were the subject of a successful effort to control all colors. Their great scientists have also extended the range of blue up to a very intense color through a purification of the cobalt.
The availability of all shades of blue restarted the fashion of the blue and white that had made the success of the Yuan and early Ming porcelains, using again traditional forms and themes along with interesting innovations.
On April 7, 2015, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 76M from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M a vase 39 cm high from the Yongzheng period, lot 108. It is an ovoid vase elegantly rising to a narrow tall neck, decorated in a brilliant deep blue with two imperial dragons in a dense surrounding of floral patterns.
The Yongzheng potters also made bottles of the moon flask type that had been one of the favorite porcelain shapes at the time of the Yongle emperor of the Ming. In that category an octagonal shape was a technical feat.
The availability of all shades of blue restarted the fashion of the blue and white that had made the success of the Yuan and early Ming porcelains, using again traditional forms and themes along with interesting innovations.
On April 7, 2015, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 76M from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M a vase 39 cm high from the Yongzheng period, lot 108. It is an ovoid vase elegantly rising to a narrow tall neck, decorated in a brilliant deep blue with two imperial dragons in a dense surrounding of floral patterns.
The Yongzheng potters also made bottles of the moon flask type that had been one of the favorite porcelain shapes at the time of the Yongle emperor of the Ming. In that category an octagonal shape was a technical feat.
4
Garlic Head Vase
2014 SOLD for HK$ 76M by Bonhams
Some porcelain pieces with the in-period Yongzheng seal mark have stunning shapes resulting from their parallel development in the most advanced techniques in the span of only a few years in that reign.
It happened in a network of kilns in Jingdezhen. Only the presentation for acceptance by the emperor mattered. The details of the highly effective organization set up by the demanding Superintendent Tang Ying and his process to supply models to the craftsmen did not need to be documented in period.
One of these developments is the so called garlic head vase with a bulb added as a finial to the neck, inspired from the Ming moonflasks. Only two examples are known from the Yongzheng period but the same shape was also later made for Qianlong. One of the Yongzheng is kept at the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The other Yongzheng specimen, 55 cm high, is decorated in a range of underglaze cobalt blues with a variety of interlocked flowers and leaves. It was sold for HK $ 76M by Bonhams on November 27, 2014, lot 181.
It happened in a network of kilns in Jingdezhen. Only the presentation for acceptance by the emperor mattered. The details of the highly effective organization set up by the demanding Superintendent Tang Ying and his process to supply models to the craftsmen did not need to be documented in period.
One of these developments is the so called garlic head vase with a bulb added as a finial to the neck, inspired from the Ming moonflasks. Only two examples are known from the Yongzheng period but the same shape was also later made for Qianlong. One of the Yongzheng is kept at the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The other Yongzheng specimen, 55 cm high, is decorated in a range of underglaze cobalt blues with a variety of interlocked flowers and leaves. It was sold for HK $ 76M by Bonhams on November 27, 2014, lot 181.
5
Tianqiuping
2012 SOLD for $ 5.9M by Bonhams
A 53 cm high globular blue and white vase with a tall neck in the classical tianqiuping shape, 53 cm high, with the Yongzheng mark, was sold for $ 5.9M by Bonhams on December 10, 2012, lot 5255. This piece is decorated in a delicate light blue with a rich pattern of several varieties of blossoms with elegant spiraling tendrils.
It had belonged to the collection of US President Hoover.
It had belonged to the collection of US President Hoover.
6
Peach Box
2013 SOLD for HK$ 44M by Sotheby's
The fencai meaning powdery colors applies to the Imperial yangcai porcelains decorated in opaque enamels. Its latest achievement was the mastery of the pink.
The Yongzheng emperor loved the symbols of immortality and happiness such as the peach, which provided also a great opportunity to use the brightest fencai palette in the fruits, flowers, leaves and branches.
The figure of the peach is standardized In the ninth year of his reign, 1731 CE, when the emperor commissions a series of peach bowls in pairs as symbols of the Eternal Peace. One of these pairs was sold for HK $ 90M by Sotheby's in 2015.
A 19 cm round box and cover in fencai bearing the imperial Yongzheng mark was sold by Sotheby's on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 44M, lot 3036, and for HK $ 35M on October 13, 2021, lot 3656.
Its cover displays eight fruits in an irregular arrangement within branches and blossoms. The careful naturalistic rendering of the peaches in two varieties precedes the 1731 standardization.
It was certainly executed after the superintendent Tang Ying made his first official visit to Jingdezhen in 1726 CE to trigger his highly successful diversification of the porcelains in techniques, shapes, themes and reproductions. Its domed shape is very scarce in fencai. No similar peach box is known.
A vase was sold for HK $ 41.5M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2002, lot 532, and donated in 2004 to the Shanghai Museum by Dr. Alice Cheng. This yangcai peach vase from the Yongzheng period had spent the previous 33 years on a table in Ogden Reid's New York home stuffed with sand and newspaper with a light bulb in its mouth. No other peach vase of olive form is known.
The Yongzheng emperor loved the symbols of immortality and happiness such as the peach, which provided also a great opportunity to use the brightest fencai palette in the fruits, flowers, leaves and branches.
The figure of the peach is standardized In the ninth year of his reign, 1731 CE, when the emperor commissions a series of peach bowls in pairs as symbols of the Eternal Peace. One of these pairs was sold for HK $ 90M by Sotheby's in 2015.
A 19 cm round box and cover in fencai bearing the imperial Yongzheng mark was sold by Sotheby's on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 44M, lot 3036, and for HK $ 35M on October 13, 2021, lot 3656.
Its cover displays eight fruits in an irregular arrangement within branches and blossoms. The careful naturalistic rendering of the peaches in two varieties precedes the 1731 standardization.
It was certainly executed after the superintendent Tang Ying made his first official visit to Jingdezhen in 1726 CE to trigger his highly successful diversification of the porcelains in techniques, shapes, themes and reproductions. Its domed shape is very scarce in fencai. No similar peach box is known.
A vase was sold for HK $ 41.5M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2002, lot 532, and donated in 2004 to the Shanghai Museum by Dr. Alice Cheng. This yangcai peach vase from the Yongzheng period had spent the previous 33 years on a table in Ogden Reid's New York home stuffed with sand and newspaper with a light bulb in its mouth. No other peach vase of olive form is known.
7
Dragon Charger
2012 SOLD for HK$ 41M by Sotheby's
On October 9, 2012, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 41M a large charger, 47 cm in diameter, lot 125. Such a ceremonial dish was intended to fill the table before meals are served in smaller plates. This piece bears the six-character mark of Yongzheng, the fifth Qing emperor.
Successor to Kangxi and predecessor of Qianlong, Yongzheng was like them an avid supporter of Chinese porcelains. The piece coming for sale, as almost always in China, is a synthesis of different traditions executed by a skilled craftsman.
The colors are classical : underglaze dark blue and bright iron red, and the model of the composition was known from the early Ming.
At the center of the medallion, a very strong red dragon is seen full frontal, levitating over a blue ocean of unleashed waves. On the front side, in the sloping edge of the plate, four red dragons soar in the blue clouds. A similar scene happens on the back edge.
Some of these secundary dragons have a lesser social status, which can not be detected in their size or in their attitude but in the number of claws and the shape of the tail. The readability of these symbols was certainly obvious to the guests of Yongzheng, 280 years ago.
Successor to Kangxi and predecessor of Qianlong, Yongzheng was like them an avid supporter of Chinese porcelains. The piece coming for sale, as almost always in China, is a synthesis of different traditions executed by a skilled craftsman.
The colors are classical : underglaze dark blue and bright iron red, and the model of the composition was known from the early Ming.
At the center of the medallion, a very strong red dragon is seen full frontal, levitating over a blue ocean of unleashed waves. On the front side, in the sloping edge of the plate, four red dragons soar in the blue clouds. A similar scene happens on the back edge.
Some of these secundary dragons have a lesser social status, which can not be detected in their size or in their attitude but in the number of claws and the shape of the tail. The readability of these symbols was certainly obvious to the guests of Yongzheng, 280 years ago.
