Lot 26

Lot 26
Treasury 6, no. 1174

Spring in the Pink

Ruby-pink enamel on colourless glaze on porcelain; painted on each main side with an idyllic waterside landscape scene in spring with, on one main side, an open pavilion beneath a bare tree beside a river or lake with a small plank bridge crossing an inlet and leading to another smaller tree with early foliage or blossoms, and on the other with two scholars seated on a promontory beneath a bare tree gazing out towards a man in a skiff and, beyond, to hills on the far shore, inscribed with two seals of the artist, long and shan in positive seal script; the interior unglazed
Possibly Longshan, Jingdezhen, 1760–1820
Height: 5.5 cm
Mouth: 0.7 cm
Stopper: nephrite; vinyl collar

Lot 26 Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd (1987)

Published:
Kleiner 1995, no. 221
Treasury 6, no. 1174

Exhibited:
British Museum, London, June–October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997

Lot 26 Commentary
Ruby-red enamelled designs of landscapes are found regularly on enamelled porcelain, metal, and glass from the early Qianlong period and occur throughout the Qianlong reign, so there is no reason why this should not date from the latter part of the eighteenth century. The unglazed interior would support this dating.

Longshan appears to be an assumed artistic name (hao), of a kind found on literati paintings, and indeed the style of the scholars-in-landscape paintings on the two sides of this bottle is suggestive of literati involvement. However, we have not made any identification of Longshan plausible for the period. The shape of this unique bottle is extremely rare for porcelain, although a somewhat similar form exists in glass, probably from the palace workshops (Treasury 5, no. 767).