A MAGNIFICENT FAMILLE-ROSE TIANQIUPING

In the spring of 1722, looking back at what he had achieved in his sixty-year reign and looking forward to an uncertain future, the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) sat in his imperial gardens admiring the peonies. His son, Prince Yinzhen, had invited him to the gardens and had a platform (The ‘Peony Platform,’ Mudantai) built to help his aging father admire the blooms. Bursting in a rainbow of colors and imperial splendor, gently undulating in the breeze, these peonies – the Emperor’s favorite flower – soothed his worried mind and would soon bear witness to a momentous occasion in the history of China.

Until that afternoon, so the story goes, the future of the Qing dynasty remained uncertain. With thirty-five sons and more than fifty grandchildren mired in attempts to grab at power and secure their positions, the successor to the imperial throne had yet to be chosen and, growing weary with age, the Kangxi Emperor would soon be too frail to go on. Only the fourth-oldest son but less ambitious or dangerous than many of his brothers, Prince Yinzhen had appeared to be a sensible yet uncertain choice for the future of the empire. While clearly a favorite of the Emperor, would Yinzhen have the strength to lead? Would he and his descendants be ready to continue the dynasty his great-grandfather Taizu had begun? At that moment, rustling in the blooms below, the twelve-year-old Prince Hongli, Yinzhen’s son, caught the Emperor’s attention and eased his spirit. The young prince had never met his grandfather before but, in that moment, history was made. The Kangxi Emperor took a liking to the boy, to his father and to his chosen line of succession and, a year later, Yinzhen became the Yongzheng Emperor and Hongli (later the Qianlong Emperor) his crown prince.

This intimate yet monumental moment, uniting the three great Qing emperors for the first t.mes amongst the myriad blooms, must have occurred to the Yongzheng Emperor admiring the present vase. Boldly thrown in a grand tianqiuping form with its luscious peony design swirling around its voluptuous body, the present vase exudes an air of majesty and calm that typifies the Yongzheng period. Grand like the art of Yongzheng’s father before him and magnificent like that of his son’s reign to follow, the present vase epitomizes the extraordinary craftsmanship of the High Qing period. Yet, in its serenity, its bold use of negative space, and subdued composition of blooms against a white ground, the vase retains a sense of austerity, of care, and of meditation typical only of the Yongzheng reign and that quiet yet eventful day in the Summer Gardens.

These luscious peonies continued to inspire the Yongzheng Emperor throughout his brief but illustrious reign; recreated on porcelain, paper and silk alike. Compare, for example, the famous series of 100 paintings by court painter Jiang Tingxi (1669 - 1732), Bai zhong mudan pu [Hundred Species of Peony], presented to the Yongzheng Emperor during his reign and included in The Delicate Beauty of Peony —Special Exhibition of One Hundred Species of Peony Figure Painted By The Court Painter Jiang Tingxi, Long Museum, Shanghai, 2017. This masterwork, delicately rendering each bloom in turn in a hundred brilliant shades, is faithfully recreated in style on the present vase, the brilliant white glaze providing a fitting canvas for the medley of soft colors above. For another similar treatment of peonies on a brilliant white porcelain ‘canvas’ produced for the Yongzheng Emperor, also compare a famous baluster vase still preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete collects ion of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 46 (Fig. 1).

These extraordinary pieces, blending the lines between painting and pottery, were facilitated by an equally extraordinary development in the science of porcelain production. In the 6th year of the Yongzheng reign (1728) after decades of experimentation, the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen succeeded in reproducing the white enamel invented in Europe and – with it – created the famille rose palette. Unlike in the more limited palette of famille verte or other earlier lowfired enamels, the development of white enamel in the late 1720s gave artisans the freedom to mix a much broader range of colors and shades for porcelain decoration and apply them with an elegance and intricacy never before seen at Jingdezhen. Elaborate floral motifs like the present, taking full advantage of the newfound pinks, lemon-yellows and shading possibilities of the famille rose palette, soon became staple designs in the imperial kilns and were refined to exacting standards for their imperial patron.

Tianqiuping of Yongzheng mark and period painted with such delicate and superb flower designs are extremely rare with only four other known examples apparently attested: one, formerly in the stock of C. T. Loo, illustrated in Cécile and Michel Beurdeley, La Céramique Chinoise, Fribourg, 1974, col. pls 91 and 92 (Fig. 2); the second from the collects ion of R. H. R. Palmer in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XC:2 (Fig. 3); the third included in Ching Wan Society Thirtieth Anniversary Catalogue. Works of Art, Taipei, 2025, cat. no. 65; and the fourth sold in our London rooms, 16th June 1999, lot 807, again in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1724, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th May 2014, lot 2914 9 (Fig. 4).

Compare also a related vase with a Yongzheng seal mark, from the collects ion of Dr. Tamisuke Yokogawa, now in Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in The World's Great collects ions. Oriental Ceramics, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 80, painted with similar peonies on the body, but with an additional peony branch on the neck in place of the present magnolia; and a smaller (34.3 cm) pair of Yongzheng tianqiuping painted with chrysanthemum branches in a similar style, from the collects ion of J. Pierpont Morgan illustrated in Stephen W. Bushell and William M. Laffan, Catalogue of The Morgan collects ion of Chinese Porcelain, New York, 1907, pl. LV, case F, nos 27 and 28, one of which was later sold in these rooms from the collects ion of Frederick J. and Antoinette H. Van Slyke, 31st May 1989, lot 221.

1722年春，康熙皇帝（1662–1722在位）坐於御苑觀賞眼前牡丹，回顧統治大清六十載之過往，思索眼前未知之數。是時，雍親王胤禛於御苑建「牡丹臺」，邀父皇駕臨賞花。牡丹諸色，姿態雍容，五彩斑斕，風中搖曳生姿，皇帝心境稍慰。未幾，一段重要歷史於此間悄然鋪展。

據傳，於彼日下午之前，皇嗣一直未決。康熙共有子三十五，孫五十餘，隨著皇帝年事漸高，諸王子孫爭權角逐，朝野莫測。胤禛僅為第四皇子，權欲野心亦不如衆皇兄弟，雖得康熙寵愛，然而是否繼承大統之選，其子孫又能否繼承清太祖開拓之大業，似乎尚未可作定論。是時，康熙帝忽聞花叢中聲響，胤禛十二歲之子弘曆從花叢中現身，卓然出眾，神采飛揚，極得皇帝歡心，此爲弘曆初次謁見康熙。康熙由此篤定繼承之人須得與弘曆一脈，翌年胤禛登基，是為雍正皇帝，弘曆為皇太子，後即位乾隆皇帝。

本瓶遍飾牡丹，雍正皇帝觀賞本瓶之時，相信必定亦曾想起當日御苑牡丹花前，康、雍、乾三代皇帝首次聚首之情景。此天球瓶線條渾圓挺拔，施粉彩玉堂富貴紋，牡丹綻放，紋理生動，氣韻雍容，極具雍正朝藝術之特色，而且恢宏如康熙瓷器；華麗可比乾隆藝術，誠屬清代盛世瓷器藝術卓越成就之代表。而其線條洗練、留白講究，如夏日宮苑靜謐祥和，體現雍正一朝特有之秀雅。

牡丹紋飾常見於雍正年間，無論瓷器、書畫或織品皆然。比較清宮畫師蔣廷錫（1669–1732年）《百種牡丹譜》，雍正年間進呈御覽，2017年曾見上海龍美術館「蔣廷錫《百種牡丹譜》特展」。蔣氏筆法細膩，以百色描繪衆花，色彩層層疊加。本瓶白釉潔淨，粉彩層疊有致，猶如將蔣氏牡丹重現於瓶身。北京故宮博物院收藏一雍正御瓷，瓶形相近、亦飾牡丹紋，見於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系．琺瑯彩．粉彩》，香港，1999年，圖版46（圖1）。

如此珍瓷，將繪畫藝術施與瓷器之上，藝術成就有賴瓷器技術卓越發展。粉彩之法，肇自雍正六年（1728），景德鎮御窰歷經多年實驗，成功仿製歐洲白色琺瑯，中國瓷器粉彩之法由此創製。十八世紀二十年代後期出現之白琺瑯，相較五彩或其他早期低溫燒製琺瑯之色調更能讓瓷匠自由調色，因而粉彩瓷器色調更為細緻豐富，所成紋飾精妙優雅。

本瓶即運用粉彩新法，色彩深淺層次豐富，巧用粉紅、檸檬黃等諸色，牡丹栩栩如生。如此技法，根據雍正皇帝嚴格標準精益求精，旋即成為當朝御瓷典範。

如本品紋飾精妙之雍正御製天球瓶，存世稀罕，現知僅有四例。其一出自盧芹齋收藏，載於 Cécile 與 Michel Beurdeley 著《La Céramique Chinoise》，弗里堡，1974年，彩色圖版91與92（圖2）；其二為 R. H. R. Palmer 舊藏，錄於 Soame Jenyns，《Later Chinese Porcelain》，倫敦，1951年，圖版XC:2（圖3）；例三見於2025年台北「清翫雅集三十周年收藏展」圖錄，編號65；其四售於倫敦蘇富比1999年6月16日，編號807，後兩度易手，分別為2006年4月10日香港蘇富比，編號1724，以及2014年5月28日佳士得香港，編號2914（圖4）。

另可比較一例，見於東京國立博物館，橫河民輔舊藏，雍正年器並款，瓶身繪相近牡丹紋飾，瓶頸牡丹花枝則與本瓶玉蘭紋飾相異，圖載《東洋陶磁大観》，卷一，東京，1982年，彩色圖版80。再比一對瓶例，尺寸較小（高34.3公分），飾菊花紋飾，曾屬 J. Pierpont Morgan 珍藏，載於 Stephen W. Bushell 與 William M. Laffan 編《Catalogue of The Morgan collects ion of Chinese Porcelain》，紐約，1907年，圖版LV，陳列櫃F，編號27及28，其中一瓶售於1989年5月31日蘇富比，Frederick J. 與 Antoinette H. Van Slyke 伉儷舊藏，編號221。