Beschreibung:

A fine and outstanding doucai and famille-rose 'sanduo' moonflask,Seal mark and period of Qianlong清乾隆 鬪彩加粉彩福壽三多雙龍耳扁瓶《大清乾隆年製》款
the well-potted rounded body superbly painted on each side in the doucai palette accented with famille-rose highlights, rendered with a large medallion formed with the sanduo, comprising a pale yellow bough bearing a two ripe peaches and a third fruit below depicted in raspberry-red shading to a pale greenish-yellow with scattered raspberry markings, a brown pomegranate branch bearing three fruit in soft shades of purple and yellow, the largest with burst skin to reveal the bright purple seeds inside, and with four finger-citron rendered in cobalt-blue beneath the bright yellow enamel, the various boughs interlaced and wreathed by curling foliage, the sides with a swooping iron-red bat suspending a leafy scroll extending to enclose a wan emblem and shou character above a further bat supporting a beribboned and tasselled chime, the cylindrical neck with a bat on each side suspending scrolling foliage and flanked by a pair of handles rendered in the the form of sinuous dragons, all between pendent ruyi heads and a leafy scroll encircling the rim and foot, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark
31.3 cmCondition reportIn overall excellent condition. The enamel has been very well preserved with occasional insignificant burst bubbles, including a tiny one to a peach.
品相完好。釉彩保存整體完好，一桃實厚彩處見細小爆釉。
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."ProvenanceSotheby's Hong Kong, 8th November 1982, lot 204.Christie's Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 525.The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong.
香港蘇富比1982年11月8日，編號204 香港佳士得1990年10月8日，編號525 香港徐氏藝術館
LiteratureGeng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding. Qingdai bufen [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain. Qing section], Taipei, 1984, pl. 165. Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 478.Yeh Pei-Lan, Beauty of Ceramics. Gems of the Doucai, Taipei, 1993, pl. 122. The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 176.
耿寶昌，《明清瓷器鑑定：清代部分》，台北，1984年，圖版165 耿寶昌，《明清瓷器鑑定》，香港，1993年，圖版478 葉佩蘭，《美哉陶瓷．鬪彩名瓷》，1993年，圖版122 《徐氏藝術館：陶瓷篇IV．清代》，香港，1995年，圖版176Catalogue noteRarely have the doucai and fencai (famille rose) palettes been as successfully combined as on this impressive moonflask, which celebrates the creative breadth of porcelain production under the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95) with its brilliant colour palette. Only one pair of such vases appear to have been produced.
The doucai painting style, with its delicate drawing in fine blue outlines and its colouration in polychrome washes, was the archetypal style of decoration in the Chenghua reign (1465-87), when the colours were still limited to a few bright shades. It was only by the end of the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) that the fencai palette with its wide range of tones and subtle pastel tints became available. The first trials in combining the two colour schemes began in the Yongzheng period (1723-35), but were generally restricted to small touches of fencai enamels included among typical doucai designs.
This moonflask represents a very ambitious combination of the two colour schemes, since the full famille rose enamel palette is here used with the underglaze-blue outlines that are characteristic of doucai. Although aesthetically most satisfactory and striking, the marriage of these two painting techniques remained rare. Featured by Geng Baocang in his famous ceramic book Ming Qing ciqi jianding / Appraisal of Ming and Qing Porcelains, Hong Kong, 1993, fig. 478, this vase is used as an exemplar of the remarkable graphic effect that can be found on doucai wares of the Qianlong reign. An achievement of the Qianlong period, the full incorporation of the doucai and famille rose palettes was, as Geng states, usually applied only to the depiction of flowers and clothes to enhance the overall visual effect. He also notes that this special style continued to be appreciated in the century thereafter, as demonstrated by some of the desk items produced at the imperial kiln of the Daoguang reign (1821-50).
Only one other vessel of this design appears to be recorded, presumably the pair to this flask, formerly in the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in these rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 87, illustrated in Sotheby's Hong Kong, Twenty Years: 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 239, and included in the Special Exhibition. Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 342.
The design of this piece is known from a closely related moonflask with a wider foot, and handles in the form of bats, which is painted in doucai only, from the collection of Iver Munthe Daae, now in the collection of the National Museum, Oslo (accession no. OK-03389), and included in the exhibition Daae Samlingen, Kunstindustrimuseet i Oslo, Oslo, 1989-90, catalogue p. 38. Thanks to the colours of the famille rose palette, the fruits on the present moonflask that are delicately shaded in layered tones of pink, purple, yellow and lime-green, are represented much more naturalistically compared with those on the Oslo vessel. The skin of the peaches is particularly sensitively painted in a range of gradations and the seeds of the pomegranates are carefully rendered as if reflecting light – effects not available with the doucai palette.
The motif on these flasks is known as sanduo, literally ‘three plenties’ or ‘three abundances’. The idea originates from the main Daoist text, Zhuangzi, of the Warring States period (475-211BC), where in the chapter on Heaven and Earth the philosopher describes the story of the sage Yao visiting a place called Hua, whose local official gives Yao three blessings: ‘May the sage live long’, ‘May the sage become rich’, ‘May the sage have many sons’. The official added that ‘long life, riches, and many sons are what men wish for’. At least from the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), these three blessings have been symbolically rendered by groups of the three fruits peach, Buddha’s Hand citron and pomegranate. In China, peaches have a long history of being associated with longevity and immortality. The Buddha’s Hand citron (fo shou) consists almost entirely of rind and is therefore not edible, but is used as a medicinal plant. On account of its intense fragrance and evocative form, resembling a hand with fingers bent to form a mudra, it is a popular offering on altars of temples and local shrines. The character fo is also a pun for ‘riches’ (fu) and ‘blessings' (fu), making this fruit highly auspicious. The pomegranate, usually depicted split open and revealing its multiple seeds, represents the wish for many offspring.
Related in its colour scheme and motif, but different in form, is a meiping painted in both doucai and famille rose colours, depicting eight fruiting sprays of pomegranate, peach, finger-citron, cherry, longan, loquat, grape and lychee but in a more dispersed manner, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2007, lot 513.
The shape of the present flask inevitably calls to mind the moonflasks of the early Ming (1368-1644) reigns of Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande (1426-35), the greatest period for the production of blue-and-white porcelain. These Ming dynasty moonflasks began to be copied on a larger scale in the Yongzheng reign, when the whole repertoire of Yongle forms was reproduced. The Yongzheng versions generally follow the Ming shapes rather closely, either with a flat base and no foot, or a garlic-head mouth, while in the present version the shape has been modified. In the Qianlong reign the potters of the imperial kilns appear to have been more interested in diversifying handle shapes than in details of the vessels' silhouette, and animal, bird and plant forms, often archaistic in style, were created. The present handle shape can be traced back to the Yongzheng reign, but at that time it represented a great exception, as otherwise at that time handles were far simpler, generally of plain loop or scroll form, or were lacking altogether.
龍耳扁瓶，以鬪彩、粉彩技法相綴，華麗尊貴，珍稀非凡，展現乾隆窰造瓷技術之創新。現知乾窰僅造一對此式扁瓶。 
鬪彩瓷，創燒於明成化一朝，青花作勾勒，滿填各色釉上彩，色彩選擇仍有侷限。粉彩創於康熙晚期，色系更豐富，增添許多淡雅柔美的色調，雍正年間，初次嘗試結合二者，但多限於在鬪彩瓷上，些微增添少量粉彩釉色。
本品紋飾以青花勾勒，填以粉彩，大膽結合二種技法，視覺效果明豔繽紛，強而有力，極為罕見。錄於耿寶昌盛名著作，《明清瓷器鑑定》，香港，1993年，圖版478，作為乾窰鬪彩瓷紋飾之範例，並述及，結合鬪彩、粉彩二種技法，多用於花卉、織品紋飾，加強整體視覺效果，如此風格持續盛行於後朝，可見於道光時期御窰文房器具。
存世唯一與本品相似者，或應成對，曾屬英國鐵路基金會藏品，1989年5月16日售於香港蘇富比，編號87，刊於《香港蘇富比二十周年》，香港，1993年，圖版239，並錄於《特別展：中国の陶磁》，東京國立博物館，1994年，編號342。
與此器相類作例，參考 Iver Munthe Daae 舊藏一件鬪彩扁瓶，足較寬，蝙蝠耳，現藏奧斯陸國立美術博物館，藏品編號 OK-03389，展出於《 Daae Samlingen》，Kunstindustrimuseet i Oslo，奧斯陸，1989-1990年，頁38。本品桃紋，以粉彩細緻色調相綴，粉紅、紫、黃、淺綠，烘托出碩果豐美之色彩變化，與奧斯陸博物館藏品相比，更加自然寫實，桃實、石榴子描寫細膩，色彩漸層柔和，光影綽綽，乃鬪彩無可及之。
「三多」紋，源自戰國時期，道家著作《莊子》〈天地篇〉，記述聖人堯觀乎華，華封人祝堯「使聖人壽」，「使聖人富」，「使聖人多男子」，並曰「壽、富、多男子，人之所欲也。」此三祝辭，至明末已成為桃、石榴、佛手三果圖像之意涵。中國文化中，桃實象徵高壽長生，佛手柑皮厚多用於入藥，氣味香馥，造型似法印，常供於佛前，音類「富」、「福」，極為祥瑞。石榴熟透時，皮綻子露，，象徵多子多孫。
類同技法及紋飾瓷器，參考一件折枝花果紋梅瓶，繪石榴、桃、佛手、櫻桃、龍眼、枇杷、葡萄與荔枝，2007年4月8日，售於香港蘇富比，編號513。
扁瓶器形可溯至早明永樂、宣德青花瓷，清雍正朝復燒大量永樂器形瓷器，細節上亦依循明例，平底、無圈足、蒜頭口等，與本品相異。乾隆朝御窰，不囿於器形細節，多方嘗試不同形制的器耳，運用如瑞獸、鳳鳥、植物造形等，多為仿古風格。本品雙龍耳源自雍正窰，乃當時特例，為多數雍例雙耳簡素，或無耳。