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Lot Essay
The combination of underglaze-blue and copper-red on porcelain is one of the most difficult techniques accomplished by potters at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The firing of the highly-temperamental copper-red posed a significant challenge to potters, making the present vase with its well-controlled vivid copper-red and vibrant tone of underglaze blue a very rare and successful example of the High Qing imperial kilns.
The present vase is further distinguished by its large size, which would have made it even more difficult to fire successfully. No other Qianlong-marked underglaze-blue and copper-red yuhuchunping of this size and design appears to have been published. Similar Qianlong-marked examples decorated with dragons are found in the form of bottle vases and tianqiuping, such as the ones in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, no. 209 (bottle vase, 45 cm.), no. 210 (tianqiuping, 47 cm.), no. 211 (tianqiuping, 55 cm.).
Compare also to a group of unmarked underglaze-blue and copper-red yuhuchunping dated to the Yongzheng period in the Qing court collection, including one (44 cm.) decorated with peaches and bats (fig. 1), a smaller one (31.5 cm.) with peaches, and one with a lotus scroll (30 cm.), see ibid., pp. 212-214, nos. 193-195.
The present vase is further distinguished by its large size, which would have made it even more difficult to fire successfully. No other Qianlong-marked underglaze-blue and copper-red yuhuchunping of this size and design appears to have been published. Similar Qianlong-marked examples decorated with dragons are found in the form of bottle vases and tianqiuping, such as the ones in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, no. 209 (bottle vase, 45 cm.), no. 210 (tianqiuping, 47 cm.), no. 211 (tianqiuping, 55 cm.).
Compare also to a group of unmarked underglaze-blue and copper-red yuhuchunping dated to the Yongzheng period in the Qing court collection, including one (44 cm.) decorated with peaches and bats (fig. 1), a smaller one (31.5 cm.) with peaches, and one with a lotus scroll (30 cm.), see ibid., pp. 212-214, nos. 193-195.