A fine copper-red-glazed bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng

Acquired in San Francisco between mid-1980s and 1990s.

Among the various high-temperature glazes developed in China, copper-red proved to be the most technically demanding due to its extreme sensitivity during firing. Nevertheless, because the color red was closely associated with celebration, auspiciousness, and happiness, such glazes were in strong demand from the early Ming dynasty onwards. After a decline in production during the late fifteenth century, the use of copper-red glazes at Jingdezhen was revived under the patronage of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) and reached perfection by the Yongzheng period (1723-1735).

Nigel Wood notes in Chinese Glazes, London, 1999, p. 180, that the French Jesuit missionary Père François d’Entrecolles (1664–1741) recorded detailed observations on the manufacture of copper-red wares at Jingdezhen in a series of letters. These accounts describe the sourcing of copper for the glaze, the recipes employed, and the locations of the kilns in which such wares were fired. D’Entrecolles was aware of the technical difficulties inherent in producing copper-red glazes, and his writings attest to the exceptionally high level of ceramic expertise attained by the Qing potters at Jingdezhen.

For comparable imperial Yongzheng red-glazed bowls, see an example formerly in the collection of Tang Shaoyi, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 24th November 1987, lot 129, and subsequently at Christie’s New York, 21st September 2000, lot 394; later included in Recent Acquisitions, Marchant, London, 2010, cat. no. 36. Additional examples include one sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th November 1982, lot 242, and another from the estate of Charles Harrison McClintick, sold at Christie’s New York, 2nd December 1989, lot 315. Compare also a related example exhibited in Special Exhibition of Ch’ing-Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 11.