Author: --
Size: L7.3cm；H5.7cm
Signed and dated: Qianlong Period，Qing Dynasty
Estimate:
Final Price: RMB 26,000,000
Illustrated
Christie’s 20 Years in Hong Kong，1986 - 2006，Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights，p.228.
Arts of Asia，Volume 36，Number 5，September-October 2006，Saleroom News，p. 131.
Qianlong Six-Character Mark
Provenance
Sotheby’s Hong Kong，May 22.1979，lot 259
Private Collection，Toronto. （member of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art，Hong Kong.）
Christie’s Hong Kong，October 28，2002，lot 605
Christie’s Hong Kong，May 30.2006，lot 1227
The Ten-Views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection，no.CH237
Exhibitions
Temporary Loan: The National Museum of History，Taipei，Taiwan，1982.
Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese
This waterpot is potted with a slightly compressed globular form body rising from short footring to a broad lipped rim. The base is recessed and inscribed with six-character Qianlong mark. It is finely enamelled around the exterior with large flower heads amidst leafy composite floral strapwork，all between a lotus-lappet band at the base and a ruyi collar at the gilt rim. All patterns are set on ruby-red ground further incised with fine sgraffiato feathered scrolls. The interior and base are covered in turquoise glaze. The cover with a spherical handle is similarly decorated.
Elaborately painted with lotus scrolls on a sgraffiato-decorated ruby-red ground，this bowl with cover represent the Qianlong Emperor’s taste for the opulent，a taste that was able to be indulged through the great developments of the porcelain manufacturers working at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The richness of the floral design on a coloured ground is reminiscent of French rococo textiles，specimens of which are likely to have entered the court through merchants in Guangdong and Jesuit missionaries.
The complicated and laborious sgraffiato technique was first included in the repertoire of the Jingdezhen potters during the Qianlong period and was reserved for decorating particularly fine-quality pieces. The technique consisted of reserving the design on a monochrome enamel ground，which itself is structured by needle-point etching of endless scrolling fronds.
