Lot 3609. A Rare Large Imperial Moulded Gourd Bowl, Shangwan Mark and Period of Qianlong (1735-1796); 17.7 cm, 7 in. Estimate: 900,000 — 1,200,000 HKD (114,651 - 152,868 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.
the deep rounded sides skilfully moulded on the exterior with a repeated pattern of four butterflies, the wings made up of a pair of arched kui dragons, interspersed by pairs of peony sprays, all set between key-fret bands at the mouth and the foot, the mouth bound with a bone band, the interior lacquered in black and painted with randomly arranged gold medallions enclosing flowers, rocks-and-waves, bats, butterflies, and peaches, the underside moulded with a four-character Qianlong shangwan mark, the smooth patina of a warm russet brown tone.
Provenance: Yung Feng Co., Hong Kong, December 1982.
Collection of Water, Pine and Stone Retreat.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th October 2009, lot 1815.
Foon Koppen, 'Decorated Gourds,' In Asia, Autumn, 1983, p. 38.
Wang Shixiang, The Charms of the Gourd, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 43, fig. 9, and p. 76, fig. 9.
Note: Three Qianlong period gourd bowls, from the collection of Sir John Addis and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, are illustrated in Craig Clunas, Chinese Carving, Singapore, 1996; one bearing the mark Qianlong shangwan on the base, pl. 79; a bowl with an identical mark but with an everted rim, pl. 80; and an unmarked example attributed to the 18th century, pl. 82.
The present elegant bowl takes its form after Kangxi prototypes. A major development in the moulding of gourds commenced when the Kangxi Emperor commissioned gourd vessels to be made in the Palace Workshop which transformed the humble folk craft into an imperial art form. For Kangxi-marked examples, see one from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, Seattle Art Museum, published in J.M. Addis, 'Impressed Gourds', Oriental Art, vol. X, Spring 1964, p. 28, fig. 2; and another one included in Gems of Chinese Art from the Speelman Collection II, lot 3401.
Cf. my post: An Imperial Moulded Gourd 'Shou' Medallion Bowl, Shangwan Mark and Period of Kangxi (1662-1722)
For a detailed discussion of the early history of moulded imperial gourds see Wang Shixiang, 'Moulded Gourds', Gugong Bowuyuan Yuankan, 1979, no. 1, pp. 86-91, translated by Craig Clunas in the Oriental Ceramic Society Chinese Transactions, no. 10, London, 1981, pp. 16-30.