A very rare and fine Imperial copper-red vase, meiping, Qianlong seal mark and of the period (1736-1795)

Lot 49. A very rare and fine Imperial copper-red vase, meiping, Qianlong seal mark and of the period (1736-1795); 23cm (9in) high. Estimate 1,000,000-1,500,000 HKD. Sold for HK$ 2,000,000 (€ 218,928) inc. premium. © Bonhams 2001-2018

Rising from a slightly flared foot to high rounded shoulders, surmounted by a waisted neck and rounded mouth rim, covered overall with a lustrous crushed raspberry-red glaze, pooling neatly above the foot ring and base of the neck.

Provenance: Francis Capel Harrison (1863-1938), King's Lynn, Norfolk, acquired 1900-1903
Bluett & Sons Ltd., London
Baron Alexander von Meyendorff (1869-1964), London, acquired from the above on 15 June 1925
A distinguished European private collection, and thence by descent.

Exhibited: The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, December 1903.

Published: Bluett & Sons Ltd., A Collection of Old Chinese Monochrome Porcelain, London, June 1925, no.7, and according to which the vase was 'from the Imperial Palace, Peking'

Note: Francis Capel Harrison served as a long standing civil servant in India (1884-1911), and in his later years was appointed Head Commissioner of Paper Currency before returning to London where he became a Member of Parliament and a correspondent for the Economic Journal. Much of his collection, including the present vase, was exhibited in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford since 1903 and for about twenty years, prior to 130 pieces being sold with Bluett's in 1925. He acquired objects from Sparks as well as Bluett's. See R.David and D.Jellinek, Provenance, Collectors, Dealers and Scholars in the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, 2011, p.223.

Baron Alexander von Meyendorff (1869-1964) was the son of the Russian diplomat Felix Meyendorff and Olga, Princess Gorchakov. After a military career and then a short political career reaching the position of the Deputy Parliamentary President of the Duma, following the Russian Revolution in February 1917, he was appointed as the Ambassador of the Provisional Russian Government to Great Britain in London. During the turmoil of the October Revolution he managed to flee to London, arriving there in 1919, where he was Reader in Russian Institutions and Economics at the London School of Economics, 1922-1934. 

The rich red glaze characterising the present meiping exemplifies the technical accomplishments achieved in producing glazes of remarkable brilliance, colours and texture, during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. 

Copper-red glazed vessels were revived during the reign of the Kangxi emperor in an effort to reproduce the classic sacrificial-red, or jihong porcelain wares of the Ming dynasty, notably the specimens dating to the Hongwu and Xuande reigns. Recording the production of copper-red-glaze at Jingdezhen during the Kangxi reign, French Jesuit Pere Francois D'Entrecolles (1664-1741) acknowledged the difficulties involved in making the highly sought-after glaze and the refined skills of the potters. Copper-red glazes vessels featuring a skilfully controlled application of the glaze continued to be manufactured during the reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, with the former taking an active interest in ensuring the production of red-glazed vessels characterised by the right glaze thinness and texture.  

For a similar copper-red-glazed vase, meiping, Qianlong seal mark and of the period, see The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics Vol.IV Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no.39, which was later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 864; and see also another example in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, illustrated by U.Wiesner, Chinesisches Porzellan, Mainz am Rhein, Hildesheim, 1981, pl.99. 

A similar copper-red-glazed meiping, Qianlong mark and of the period, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 10th April 2006, lot 1521. For a similar copper-red meiping but from the Yongzheng period, see one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3614.