KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

This elegant water pot belongs to an elite group of small scholar’s objects made during the Kangxi reign which employed a rare combination of underglaze copper-red and overglaze green, and black. Compare to five water pots of this design, one in the Baur Collection, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection, vol. 2, 1999, no. 148; one in the Percival David Foundation in the British Museum, illustrated in Rosemary Scott, Illustrated Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Ware in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1991, p.59, no. B706; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 42, no. 25 (fig.1); one illustrated in the Chang Foundation, illustrated in One Thousand Years of Jingdezhen, Tokyo, 2006, p. 49, no. 31; one in the J.M. Hu Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 October 1995, lot 715 and The Baofang Pavilion Collection of Imperial Ceramics, 29 May 2019, lot 2801.

Also included in this group are globular water pots painted with a comparable design, such as an example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, 1989, p. 41, no. 24; in the Baur Collection, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection, vol. 2, 1999, no. 149; and from the Meiyintang Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2011, lot 2; also from the Au Bak Ling Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, The Au Bak Ling Collection: The Inaugural Sale, 26 September 2024, lot 8 (fig.2).