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Lot Essay
The present water pot is potted with a round body, an incurved rim, and a slightly recessed base, resembling the shape of an apple. The exterior is painted in underglaze red with four floral sprays, which are peony, lotus, chrysanthemum, and hibiscus, above a band of upright leaves, and below a band of lotus scroll on the mouth, separated by thin underglaze-blue lines.
The apple-form water pot is one of the innovative forms produced by the official kilns in Jingdezhen during the Kangxi period. Exquisitely potted and finely detailed, few example has survived to this day in good condition.
Similar examples are found in public institutions and private collections, including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2010, p. 184, no. 168; one in the C.P. Lin Collection, included in the exhibition catalogue Exquisite Forms and Colors: Treasures from Four Generations, London, no. 113; one from the Pilkington collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6 April 2016, Lot 54; and one sold at Christie's Hong Kong on November 27, 2013, Lot 3206. The style of the mark is consistent on all four pieces, suggesting that it was written by the same hand.
Compare two further examples with similar style of mark as the present water pot, one is in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue & Red, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 122, no. 118 (fig.1), the other from the Carnegie Museum of Art, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 18 March 2025, lot 107.
The apple-form water pot is one of the innovative forms produced by the official kilns in Jingdezhen during the Kangxi period. Exquisitely potted and finely detailed, few example has survived to this day in good condition.
Similar examples are found in public institutions and private collections, including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2010, p. 184, no. 168; one in the C.P. Lin Collection, included in the exhibition catalogue Exquisite Forms and Colors: Treasures from Four Generations, London, no. 113; one from the Pilkington collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6 April 2016, Lot 54; and one sold at Christie's Hong Kong on November 27, 2013, Lot 3206. The style of the mark is consistent on all four pieces, suggesting that it was written by the same hand.
Compare two further examples with similar style of mark as the present water pot, one is in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue & Red, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 122, no. 118 (fig.1), the other from the Carnegie Museum of Art, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 18 March 2025, lot 107.