A rare and large blue and white hexagonal vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆　青花折枝花果紋六方瓶　《大清乾隆年製》款

Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

5th Anniversary Exhibition. All-Stars of the Okada Collection: Masterworks of Korin, Jakuchu, Hokusai and the Ru Ware Kilns, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2018-19, exh. no. 2 (unillustrated).

The motif of this finely painted vase derives from early Ming blue and white porcelain. Fruiting and flowering branches first appeared on underglaze-blue porcelain during the Yongle reign, a time when the potters at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen achieved enormous developments in the refinement of materials and expansion of the decorative repertoire. Blue and white vases of meiping form decorated with related fruiting and flowering branches are among the most characteristic products of the Yongle period; for example, see a vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 30. Even the mottled cobalt ‘heaping and piling’ effect of the fifteenth-century originals was painstakingly reproduced by the Qing craftsmen in a display of their proficiency over the pigment.

Like many other blue and white wares of the early Ming period, this design was reinvented and transformed during the Yongzheng Emperor’s reign before becoming one of the favourites of the Qianlong Emperor. A new life has been breathed into the Qing versions through the hexagonal form and the inclusion of European-style elements such as the scrolls on the corner edges and the stems of flowers around the neck. The familiar traditional Chinese motifs, coupled with the secondary European-style designs, not only provide an attractive aesthetic but also firmly celebrate the imperial authority of Qing China. 

A closely related example in the Nanjing Museum is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 212; one is published in Selected Masterpieces of the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, pl. 102; another, sold twice in these rooms, 30th April 1991, lot 73, and 5th October 2011, lot 1920, is included in Sotheby's Hong Kong - Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 166; one, sold in these rooms, 20th May 1981, lot 764 and illustrated in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, p. 274, fig. 469; and a fifth example, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th April 1998, lot 724, is published in Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 36. A pair of vases, from the collection of General Field Marshall Alfred, Count von Waldersee, was sold in our London rooms, 12th July 2006, lot 116; the last example, sold in these rooms, 3rd October 2017, lot 3614. See also an example in the collection of the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, accession no. DL 95.86.

For the Yongzheng prototype, see a vase from the Grandidier collection and now in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 164. The similarity between the vases of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods suggests the present vase was produced early in the Qianlong Emperor's reign.

來源

壺中居，東京

展覽

《開館5周年記念展―美のスターたち―光琳．若冲．北斎．汝窯など名品勢ぞろい》， 岡田美術館，箱根，2018-19年，展覽編號2（沒載圖）

此六方瓶造形雄壯，成形不易，大器寥寥，可見清代瓷匠工藝精益求精，力求迎合當朝皇帝審美情趣。雍、乾二帝皆好仿製古器，以示當朝盛世上承華夏正統，更時添洋風紋飾，揉合中西傳統，別具新意、巧妙奪目。

明初青花瓷之器形紋飾，於清朝復興一時，本瓶即為一例。青花折枝花果，始見於永樂年間，時景德鎮御窰瓷匠工精藝巧，紋飾推陳出新。本瓶之花果紋，與永窰經典梅瓶上綴折枝花果紋一脈相承，參見北京故宮博物院藏例，錄於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集．青花釉裏紅（上）》，香港，2000年，圖版30。本瓶以鈷料點苔，鈔仿回青黑疵，重現明初青花瓷特色，足見清代匠人對鈷料掌握純熟自如。

雍正年間，瓷匠常以明初青花瓷樣式為模本，卻非一成不變。本品即為一例，以新創六方瓶式，以中國傳統花果為飾，卻融入西洋藝風，如邊角上之卷草洋花。此類六方大瓶，始製於雍正年間，又深得乾隆歡心，續有延燒，不僅賞心悅目，更彰顯大清帝國面朝四方、兼容並蓄之泱泱氣度。

南京博物院藏一件近例，見《宮廷珍藏 ．中國清代官窰瓷器》，上海，2003年，圖版212。另一例錄於《開館記念．松岡美術館名品図錄》，東京，1975年，圖版102。另有一瓶，兩次售於香港蘇富比，1991年4月30日，編號73及2011年10月5日，編號1920，錄於《香港蘇富比二十周年》，1993年，圖版166。香港蘇富比1981年5月20日也拍出一例，編號764，錄於耿寶昌，《明清瓷器鑑定》，香港，1993年，頁274，圖469。香港佳士得1998年4月27日且售一瓶，編號724，收錄於朱湯生，《中國瓷器莊紹綏收藏》，香港，2008年，圖版36。瓦德西將軍舊藏六方對瓶，則售於倫敦蘇富比2006年7月12日，編號116。尚比較一例售於香港蘇富比2017年10月3日，編號3614。科隆東亞藝術博物館亦藏一類例，館藏編號：DL 95.86。

另可參考一件雍正款雛型，乃 Grandidier 舊藏，現存法國巴黎吉美國立亞洲藝術博物館，刊於《東洋陶磁大觀》，卷7，東京，1981年，圖版164。雍正及乾隆年製之瓶極為相似，故本品可能為乾隆初年之作。