A large Chinese Imperial yangcai yellow-ground 'floral' bowl

Qing dynasty, Daoguang mark and period

Vividly enamelled around the body with a dense, leafy meander of scrolling blossoms and flowers in full bloom on a bright yellow ground, the interior with five iron-red bats in flight, the base with underglaze blue six-character seal mark, 18.5cm diameter.

清道光 黃地洋彩花卉紋盌，青花篆書「大清道光年製」款

Featuring an imaginary flower, known as 'baoxianghua', that combines elements of peony, pomegranate, chrysanthemum, lotus and other flowers and plants, to represent majesty and beauty, the magnificent enamelling on this group of bowls is a testament to the technical artistry and aesthetic mastery reached by the artisans of the Imperial workshops during the early to mid Qing dynasty. The decoration of the interior, with its five bats, wufu, represents a further auspicious wish for the owner to enjoy the 'Five Blessings' of longevity, health, wealth, love of virtue, and peaceful death.

The term Yangcai (洋彩) first appeared in the records of Tang Ying, Taosheng Jishi Bei (陶成纪事碑), written in the 13th year of Yongzheng, where yangcai is described as a new category of glazed and enamelled porcelain inspired by Western painted enamel on copper. A number of yangcai wares were produced, later to become Imperial tea and dining vessels.

Palace records report that on the thirteenth day of the tenth month of the second year of Qianlong’s reign (AD1737), the Emperor was presented with ten new designs, including that of the present bowl, listed as ‘yellow-ground yangcai Palace bowl with foreign flowers’ (洋彩黃地洋花宮碗) [中國第一歷史檔案館, 香港中文大學文物館合編., 中國第一歷史檔案館., 香港中文大學文物館., (Archives of the Qing Imperial Household Department) Xianggang Zhong wen da xue wen wu guan he bian Zhongguo di yi li shi dang an guan, Zhongguo di yi li shi dang an guan, and Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum. 2005. 清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯. Di 1 ban. Beijing: 人民出版社., 清宮內務府造辦處檔案匯總，vol. 7, 1736 – 1737年, pp. 797-798.].

Qianlong was so enamoured with the magnificent composition of baroque, scrolling flowers, that not only did he approve the production of this type of bowl in greater numbers, ordering: ‘this is a very good bowl, make more (洋彩黄地洋花宫碗甚好，再燒造些)’, but he also requested that the pattern be applied to boxes and covers, and vases. 

During the reign of Daoguang, bowls of this pattern are thought to be referred to as ‘five-bats enamel bowls’. They are present in the records of the Imperial Palace archives from as early as the twelfth month of the first year of Daoguang’s reign (AD1821), when the records report that ‘(the Imperial Household Department) received a new shipment from Jiujiang, pieces with the Daoguang mark, including twenty large five-bat enamel bowls and thirty small five-bat enamel bowls.’ The following year, when the Guangchu Division of the Imperial Household Department instructed the Jiangjiu to relay to the Imperial Kiln a list of the wares needed for the Imperial Tea and Dining Room, this list included ‘large five-bat enamel bowls’ and ‘small five-bat’ enamel bowls, with the request to produce several pieces of each. This suggests that bowls of this pattern were produced exclusively for the Imperial Tea and Dining Room, at the explicit behest of the court.

Production of these bowls was stopped in the 28th year of Daoguang (AD1849), by Imperial order. That year, when presented by a minister with the memorial listing the suggested porcelain production order for the year, Emperor Daoguang expressed dissatisfaction with the burdensome arbitrary rules of the past regulating the seasonality of patterns of porcelain and requested that the production of sixteen wares in this list be stopped immediately. Amongst these was the five-bat, floral bowl.

Palace records indicate that these bowls were produced in two sizes, both featured in the present collection. Cf. An example of the smaller size (14.8 cm diameter) is a pair from the Fonthill Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2892. The larger examples at 18.5 cm include a bowl in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, 1977, vol. 12, no. 163; a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, accession no. C.292-1918, illustrated by R. Kerr, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, London, 1986, pl. 106; and yet another bowl illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, 1999, p. 234, no. 338 (A630).

See a pair of the larger sized bowls sold by Christies Hong Kong, 1 Jun 2011, lot 3655; a single bowl sold by Sotheby's New York, 21 March 2018, lot 544; and another also sold by Sotheby's New York, 13 September 2017, lot 34.