Dr Alice Cheng’s Falangcai bowl ranks among the most legendary pieces ever to have been offered at auction and broke a world record for Chinese art when it was sold in 2006 for over HK$151 million. A gem of Imperial porcelain, the delicate, creamy white body was painted by master court enamellers in Beijing in close proximity of the Qianlong Emperor and portrays two loving swallows beside a flowering apricot tree intertwined with a willow tree, complemented by a short poem evocative of the spring. During the latter years of the Qing dynasty, the bowl and its pair entered the collects ion of Captain Charles Oswald Liddell, whose collects ion was sold in 1929. One bowl entered the collects ion of Sir Percival David and is today the pride of the British Museum. The present bowl then entered the collects ions of Charles Ernest Russell, Barbara Hutton, J.T. Tai, Tianminlou, Robert Chang and since 2006 has been the crown jewel of the celebrated collects ion of Dr Alice Cheng.
Join us live on 8 April 2023 for A t.mes less Ode to Spring: The Dr Alice Cheng Falangcai Bowl.
