29 cm. (11 3/8 in.) high

Provenance:
A Dutch private collection, thence by descent within the family

Chinese procelain decorated with the mille fleurs pattern, also known as wanhua dui, ‘a pile of ten thousand flowers’ or baihua tu, ‘hundred flowers design’, is considered exceedingly rare. Orginally deriving from French which literally translates as ‘thousand flowers’, it is essentially adapted from the pattern appearing on European tapestry during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Its intense depiction of nature's abundance evocate joy and is considered a universally appealing motif that it is well known amongst connoisseurs of Chinese porcelain.
The distinctive floral motif was first developed on porcelain in the Imperial Workshops under the keen guidance of the Yongzheng emperor and the rigorous scrutiny of the kiln supervisor Tang Ying. Mille fleurs patterns first appear on wares made during the reign of the Yongzheng emperor but mostly appearing on smaller vessels; the production of larger vessels of superior quality in millie fleur design appear to have reached a pinnacle during the Qianlong period, as exemplified by the present lot; subsequent Jiaqing and Daoguang marked and period examples tend to be less finely executed with a more chaotic control and use of the enamels.
The impressively complex and densely interwoven layout with its multitude of enamel colours combined with the unbelievably naturalistic representation of blooms and leaves with astonishing attention to detail, would have been a most challenging feat for the imperial porcelain painters to master. This type of dense design known as jiacai or ‘piled layers of colours’ appropriately describes the multitude of famille-rose shades used in order to achieve such elaborate and vibrant colour shades. There are very few known existing examples of large vessels in millefleur design: see a related example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.15.

Price estimate:
HKD: 2,500,000 - 3,500,000
USD: 320,500 - 448,700

Auction Result:
HKD: --