A RARE YELLOW-GLAZED BOWL

Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period

Footnotes

清雍正 黃釉盌
青花「大清雍正年製」楷書款

Provenance: Douglas R.A. Spankie (1929–1974), British First Secretary and Acting Consul-General, Shanghai (1962-1964), acquired during his service in Shanghai, and thence by descent

來源：道格拉斯·史本基（1929–1974），1962-1964年任英國駐上海一等秘書及代理總領事，於其任內購自上海，並由後人保存迄今

Douglas Spankie was one of an unusual and privileged group of British diplomats who served Her Majesty's Government in China between the time when the Shanghai Consulate was officially closed in 1949, and when it formally reopened in 1985. Based in the diplomatic compound in Shanghai, during his tour he was able to collect a small but interesting group of paintings and works of art, including the Yongzheng-marked yellow-glazed bowl offered as the present lot. He and his young family were permitted to visit other parts of China; his daughters remember travelling to Beijing to visit the Forbidden City, and attracting great interest from the residents. The girls learned to speak fluent Chinese, the Shanghai dialect, while Spankie spoke Mandarin.

Spankie was born in 1929 and posted to Shanghai in 1962. Returning to the UK in 1964, he just missed the extreme violence of the Cultural Revolution. During his tour, he was lucky enough to be able to share in the (admittedly restricted) social and cultural life of Shanghai, even though many of his diplomatic functions were exercised through Scandinavian diplomatic intermediaries since the UK Consulate had no formal position in the PRC. Nevertheless, some of the old pre-Revolution diplomatic niceties were still observed. Low-key celebrations to mark the Queen's Birthday attracted Chinese government attendees and there was a vibrant social life for the Western diplomatic community.

Sadly, Douglas Spankie died from cancer at the very young age of 45, before his considerable talents as a diplomat could be redeployed into a full ambassadorial posting after he completed his tour in China.

The use of yellow-glazed wares was highly restricted in the Qing Court. Wares entirely glazed in yellow were reserved for the Emperor, the Empress dowager and the Empress. Senior concubines used wares with a yellow glaze on the outside and a transparent glaze on the inside, such as the present lot. An archival record, in the Huoji qingdang (活計清檔), dated to the 12th day of the 12th month of the 11th year of the Yongzheng reign (1733) records that yellow bowls and cups were classified into three grades and made for use in the chafan fang (茶飯房) or 'tea and dining rooms'; see Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, pp.72-73.

Compare with a very similar pair of yellow bowls, Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period, illustrated by R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, p.233, no.893. Another bowl of this type, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period, in the Yale University Art Gallery, is illustrated by G.J.Lee, Selected Far Eastern Art in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and London, 1970, no.356.

Compare with a very similar yellow-glazed bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period, which was sold at Christie's London, 15 May 2012, lot 345.