A SUPERBLY ENAMELLED, FINE AND EXCEEDINGLY RARE PINK-GROUND FALANGCAI BOWL
PUCE-ENAMEL YUZHI MARK AND PERIOD OF KANGXI
A superbly enamelled, fine and exceedingly rare pink-ground Falangcai Bowl is among the highlights at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sale Series 2018 on April 3. This is without question the finest example of its type. A closely related example at the National Palace Museum, Taipei is painted with different flowers but the exact same colour ground. The rarity of the colours and the perfection of the firing make it likely the two were painted and fired side by side. Thrown and fired by potters at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, the bowls were then painted in the Imperial Palace workshops in the Forbidden City in Beijing, possibly by Jesuits resident at the court of the Kangxi emperor, and fired a second time. This one, from the celebrated collector Henry M. Knight, is expected to make more than US$25.6 million.
The auction will feature a rediscovered imperial heirloom handscroll bequeathed by the last Emperor Pu Yi to his younger brother Pu Jie. Depicting ten landscapes the handscroll is the greatest masterpiece of renowned Imperial court painter Qian Weicheng. It is estimated at US$6.4-8.9 million.
The series of six sales will offer about 300 lots with a total estimate of nearly US$93.5 million. Nicolas Chow, Deputy Chairman, Sotheby’s Asia, International Head and Chairman, Chinese Works of Art said: “There is extraordinary quality and breadth in our offerings of Chinese art this season, with possibly the finest assemblage of Qing porcelain on offer in recent memory.”
