Lot 239
Treasury 6, no. 1456 (‘Yinyang Yixing’)
HK$52,500

Pink, white, black, dark and light blue enamels, and crackled white glaze on brown stoneware; with a flat lip and concave circular foot surrounded by a flat circular footrim; each main side with a three-dimensional yinyang symbol set in a circular panel and painted in dappled pink and white and dappled dark and light blue; the narrow sides each painted with four of the Eight Trigrams; the foot and interior glazed white
Yixing, 1780–1850
Height: 5 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.52/1.62 cm
Stopper: lapis lazuli

Provenance:
Gerry P. Mack (1970)
Margaret Prescott Wise
Edgar and Roberta Wise (1995)
Robert Kleiner (1995)

Published:
Arts of Asia, September–October 1973, p. 46, fig. 24
JICSBS, March 1981, p. 10, fig. 17
Treasury 6, no. 1456

This bottle is unique for its combination of a distinctive shape, a rare design for a Yixing bottle, and the carving of the surface of the two panels to bring the pink, which covers the yang segment of the yinyang symbol, into higher relief. Yang represents the male, the bright, the ascending, and is painted in the paler colour, while the darker, blue enamelled segment stands for yin, the female, the dark, the recessive. These are believed by the Chinese to be the two principal forces that set the universe in motion through their interaction. On the two narrow sides are the Eight Trigrams, which, in all their possible combinations, provide the Sixty-four Hexagrams of the ancient divination system set out in the Yi jing (Book of Changes). At the top on one narrow side is the trigram Qian, a series of three unbroken lines. This was adopted by the Qianlong emperor as a personal seal to stand for the Qian of his reign title, but its prominence at the beginning of the series reflects the most popular arrangement of the Eight Trigrams rather than any reference to the emperor (who may already have been dead when this bottle was produced, although it might date from the last years of his life).

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.