A PAIR OF FAMILLE ROSE 'DRAGON' BOWLS AND COVERS

Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period, with probably later covers and enamels

Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period, with probably later covers and enamels
The flaring conical bowls and domed covers brightly decorated in polychrome enamels with animated serpentine five-clawed dragons emerging from crashing waves, each in pursuit of a flaming pearl amongst clustered cloud scrolls, each with an underglaze-blue Yongzheng six-character mark. Each 20.5cm (8in) diam. (4).

清雍正 粉彩雲龍紋蓋盌一對 盌蓋及釉彩或較晚
青花「大清雍正年製」楷書款

Provenance:
Captain Charles Oswald Liddell (1854-1941)
Bluett & Sons Ltd., London
E. A. Parry (1879-1946), London, acquired from the above on 12 June 1929, and thence by descent

Published and Exhibited:
Bluett & Sons Ltd., The Liddell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain, London, June 1929, p.22, no.196.

來源：
Charles Oswald Liddell上尉（1854-1941）舊藏
倫敦古董商Bluett & Sons Ltd.
倫敦E. A. Parry（1879-1946）舊藏，於1929年6月12日購自上者，並由後人保存迄今

展覽著錄：
Bluett & Sons Ltd，《Liddell收藏中國瓷器（The Liddell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain）》，倫敦，1929年6月，頁22，編號196

Captain Charles Oswald Liddell was born in 1851 in Edinburgh. Having moved to China for family business, he worked there from 1877-1913. He married Elizabeth Birt in 1880 in the Anglican Cathedral in Shanghai, and thereby inherited Birt's Wharf there, expanding the business to Hangzhou, Tianjin and Harbin. He was joined by his brother John when the firm became known as Liddell Bros. In 1915 Liddell was Quartermaster and Hon. Captain in the 1st Battalion, The Monmouthshire Regiment, having served previously (and more adventurously) in the 'Shanghai Light Horse'. Liddell collaborated with A.W.Bahr in an exhibition in Shanghai in 1908 (he was Chairman of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), and in writing descriptions for it which were printed by A.W.Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China, 1911. Charles Liddell had formed his collection, except for three pieces, while trading in China for nearly forty years. He purchased a number of them from two significant sources: the collection of Prince Chun, the last Regent of the Qing dynasty; and from the collection of the private secretary and adviser to Li Hongzhang. In May-June 1929 Bluett's offered part of the collection for sale, publishing a catalogue of The Liddell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain with 229 entries and eight illustrative plates, one of them unusually in colour.

The shape of the present pair of bowls is particular to the Yongzheng period, and they are almost always exclusively decorated with dragons. A pair of doucai bowls and covers of this pattern, Yongzheng mark and period, in the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no.230; see also an illustrated diagram of the shape in Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Beijing, 1993, p.242, pl.414, no.13.

See a similar pair of bowls and covers decorated with dragons in doucai, Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period, illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, no.52. See also another related bowl and cover with doucai decoration of dragons and clouds, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period, illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no.129.

Compare with a pair of doucai conical dragon bowls and covers, Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period, which were sold at Christie's London, 5 November 2019, lot 173.

利德爾上尉（Captain Charles Oswald Liddell），1854年生於愛丁堡。1877年移居中國，並為其家族企業一直在華工作至 1913年。1880年，他與Elizabeth Birt在上海聖公會大教堂舉行婚禮，隨後接手了Birt家族在上海的平和碼頭，並將業務擴展到杭州、天津和哈爾濱等地。平和洋行的英文商號在其弟John加入後改為Liddell Bros。利德爾曾服役於上海英租界輕騎隊，並於1915年任蒙默思郡團一營軍需長官和榮譽上尉。1908年，利德爾與巴爾（A.W.Bahr，時任皇家亞洲學會華北分會秘書）合作於上海舉辦展覽，巴爾將展覽描述集結成《中國古瓷美術譜（Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China）》並於1911年出版。利德爾的藏品，除其中三件以外，全數在其在華經商的近四十年間入藏；其中一大部分來自兩個重要渠道：清朝末代攝政王醇親王載灃的藏品，以及李鴻章的私人秘書兼顧問的收藏。1929年5月至6月期間，倫敦古董商Bluett's出售了利德爾的部分藏品，並出版了《利德爾收藏中國瓷器（The Liddell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain）》圖錄，收錄了共計229件藏品並附8張插圖，其中甚至包含一幅頗不尋常的彩色插圖。

盌身及蓋均呈斗笠形，高圈足，口沿呈六瓣花形，蓋鈕形同盌足做成圈足狀，此式蓋盌僅見於雍正一朝。北京故宮博物院藏清雍正鬥彩雲龍紋蓋盌一對，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系：五彩·鬥彩》，編號230，器型及紋飾皆似本例。同款器型亦可見於耿寶昌著，《明清瓷器鑑定》，北京，1993年，頁242，圖414，編號13，「天蓋地式蓋盌」。

另見香港中文大學文物館藏一對清雍正鬥彩雲龍紋蓋盌，收錄於《清瓷萃珍》，香港，1995年，編號52；以及香港徐氏藝術館館藏一例雲龍紋蓋盌，見《徐氏藝術館：陶瓷IV·清代》，香港，1995年，編號129。

倫敦佳士得曾於2019年11月5日售出清雍正鬥彩雲龍紋蓋盌一對，拍品編號173，可資比對。