Hello! Connoisseur bear here~ how’s your holiday? I was having a good time, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, and eat some more…I am now so fat that I will have to get some new pants… oh no!
This week we are going to talk about a Qing famille rose yellow ground dish. For this dish, our bears think it is interesting since it looked so good, but somehow there are still some small features that are problematic to us. So, it is a good opportunity for us to discover and learn from this dish.
Preview Entry 8 - HGPY NY Auctions (Asian Fine art and Antiques) 16 January 2016
Qing Famille Rose Dayazhai Yellow Plate
Lot 63
4 Characters (永慶長春) base mark
Estimated: $5,000 - $10,000
For the background information, supposing if this is a genuine piece, this piece is made for Empress Dowager, Cixi (1835-1908). This group of pieces bear her special ‘Da Ya Zhai’ 大雅齋 (Studio of Great Elegance) marks, and were designed and produced during late Tongzhi period (1862-1874) or the early Guangxu period (1874-1908) (ref 1). This type of wares are usually grisaille-decorated墨彩, and decorated with floral and bird motifs.
Here are the reasons why we think it is a questionable piece:
Density of the black
As we can see in this section, the motifs are grisaille-decorated, however, they are in a high density of dark color, for example the pedals and the bird. For the pieces from Palace museum in China, as we can see the motifs are not in that density, and if you put them together we can see the difference. One interesting side note for the grisaille decoration is, the darker area usually is the shadowed part of the motifs, it is to convey a sense of three dimension. Feature like this started after Yongzheng period (1678-1735), at that time there were Western missionaries serving in the Qing Court, and they brought the knowledge of Western painting and the idea of linear perspective to Court painters.
Lot 63, Qing Famille Rose Dayazhai Yellow Plate
Yellow Ground Porcelain 'Flower and Butterfly' Plate, Dayazhai Mark, Qing Dynasty Guangxu period.
黃地墨彩花蝶紋盤
Collection of Palace Museum, China.
Glossy Surface/ Perfect Rim
For the glossy surface, we must be careful when we see a piece with glass-like reflection, for older piece it should be in a less reflective/ dull surface. But please be aware even if you see a dull one. If you see many scratch marks on a porcelain, it means it is treated with sand paper, people use sand paper to make the piece less reflective and to make it looks older. For famille rose pieces, the sand paper method cannot be used, since it will remove the glaze.
For the perfect rim, it is also related to the condition of this piece, it is just too perfect, it is covered with brownish glazed completely. Usually the coating should be damaged a bit. It means A, it is in a really condition. B, restored. C, Modern.
For reference piece, please see below bowl from British Museum, as you can see the rim is scratched a bit. Also, the yellow ground is less reflective, perfect than the one from HGPY NY.
Porcelain Bowl, Collection of British Museum
A side note for the brownish rim is, it seems to be a common feature for late qing imperial pieces to have a brownish rim, unlike previous periods like Qianlong and Yongzheng.
Beautiful, yet weird mark
For the base mark, It was inscribed as “Yongqing changchun” (永慶長春) (eternal prosperity and enduring spring), I must say it is nicely written, much better handwriting than I do. However~, it is not similar with other Dayazhai pieces. Please compare the style from this piece and the piece of Palace Museum (sorry for the quality).
As we can see from the piece of Palace Museum (left), the circled strokes of 慶,長,春 are longer. For the piece from HGPY NY auctions (right), they seems ‘taller’ and ‘slimmer’. I must say the mark is the red flag for me.
Reference:
1. Ronald W. Longsdorf. 1966. "The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding Porcelain." Pp. 69-78. In Orientations. Hong Kong: Orientations Magazine Ltd..
3. Bowl, British Museum, (Ok I admit that lazy for this one)
So! That’s the analysis for this week! Time to eat some more~
Also! Oh my god we got another Like for our Facebook page~~~~~~~~Thank you Chrissy Goh! You know every time when I see a like in our page, I dance in joy and jump around in my home.
For the background information, supposing if this is a genuine piece, this piece is made for Empress Dowager, Cixi (1835-1908). This group of pieces bear her special ‘Da Ya Zhai’ 大雅齋 (Studio of Great Elegance) marks, and were designed and produced during late Tongzhi period (1862-1874) or the early Guangxu period (1874-1908) (ref 1). This type of wares are usually grisaille-decorated墨彩, and decorated with floral and bird motifs.
Here are the reasons why we think it is a questionable piece:
Density of the black
As we can see in this section, the motifs are grisaille-decorated, however, they are in a high density of dark color, for example the pedals and the bird. For the pieces from Palace museum in China, as we can see the motifs are not in that density, and if you put them together we can see the difference. One interesting side note for the grisaille decoration is, the darker area usually is the shadowed part of the motifs, it is to convey a sense of three dimension. Feature like this started after Yongzheng period (1678-1735), at that time there were Western missionaries serving in the Qing Court, and they brought the knowledge of Western painting and the idea of linear perspective to Court painters.
 |
| Lot 63, Qing Famille Rose Dayazhai Yellow Plate |
 |
| Yellow Ground Porcelain 'Flower and Butterfly' Plate, Dayazhai Mark, Qing Dynasty Guangxu period. 黃地墨彩花蝶紋盤 Collection of Palace Museum, China. |
Glossy Surface/ Perfect Rim
For the glossy surface, we must be careful when we see a piece with glass-like reflection, for older piece it should be in a less reflective/ dull surface. But please be aware even if you see a dull one. If you see many scratch marks on a porcelain, it means it is treated with sand paper, people use sand paper to make the piece less reflective and to make it looks older. For famille rose pieces, the sand paper method cannot be used, since it will remove the glaze.
For the perfect rim, it is also related to the condition of this piece, it is just too perfect, it is covered with brownish glazed completely. Usually the coating should be damaged a bit. It means A, it is in a really condition. B, restored. C, Modern.
For reference piece, please see below bowl from British Museum, as you can see the rim is scratched a bit. Also, the yellow ground is less reflective, perfect than the one from HGPY NY.
 |
| Porcelain Bowl, Collection of British Museum |
A side note for the brownish rim is, it seems to be a common feature for late qing imperial pieces to have a brownish rim, unlike previous periods like Qianlong and Yongzheng.
Beautiful, yet weird mark
For the base mark, It was inscribed as “Yongqing changchun” (永慶長春) (eternal prosperity and enduring spring), I must say it is nicely written, much better handwriting than I do. However~, it is not similar with other Dayazhai pieces. Please compare the style from this piece and the piece of Palace Museum (sorry for the quality).
As we can see from the piece of Palace Museum (left), the circled strokes of 慶,長,春 are longer. For the piece from HGPY NY auctions (right), they seems ‘taller’ and ‘slimmer’. I must say the mark is the red flag for me.
Reference:
1. Ronald W. Longsdorf. 1966. "The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding Porcelain." Pp. 69-78. In Orientations. Hong Kong: Orientations Magazine Ltd..
2. 故宮博物院編，《官樣御瓷──故宮博物院藏清代制瓷官樣與御窯瓷器》，北京：紫禁城出版社（2007）。
3. Bowl, British Museum, (Ok I admit that lazy for this one)
So! That’s the analysis for this week! Time to eat some more~
Also! Oh my god we got another Like for our Facebook page~~~~~~~~Thank you Chrissy Goh! You know every time when I see a like in our page, I dance in joy and jump around in my home.
