Beschreibung:

A PEACHBLOOM-GLAZED BEEHIVE WATERPOT, TAIBO ZUNKangxi six-character mark and of the period
Finely potted of classic domed taibo zun form, the slightly tapering sides rising to a rounded shoulder and short waisted neck below a lipped mouth-rim, the exterior evenly applied overall save for the rim and base with a sumptuous crimson-red glaze suffused with pink sprinkles imitating the skin of a ripening peach, the body further faintly incised with three roundels enclosing archaistic dragons, the recessed white base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark in three columns. 12cm (4 6/8in) diam.Footnotes清康熙 豇豆紅釉團龍紋太白尊
青花「大清康熙年製」楷書款
Provenance: Alexander von Frey, Paris
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 20 September 1944
Hans (1888-1966) and Ludmilla Arnhold (1894-1976) acquired from the above
A European private collection
來源： Alexander von Frey，巴黎
Ralph M. Chait Galleries，紐約，1944年9月20日
Hans (1888-1966)和Ludmilla Arnhold (1894-1976)伉儷從上處購得
歐洲私人收藏
Evenly coated with a lustrous glaze of crushed raspberry tone, ending evenly beneath the lipped rim and thickening around the base, the present waterpot is one of the finest examples of its type.
Waterpots shaped as beehives are known as taibo zun after poet Li Taibai of the Tang dynasty, who is often depicted leaning against a large wine jar of a similar form. The shape was also referred to as jizhao zun as it resembled a chicken coop.
The attractive peachbloom glaze was notoriously difficult to achieve due to the temperamental nature of the copper pigment and appears to have been only employed on a small number of shapes reserved for use on the scholar's table and created during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor.
Copper-red glazes were produced since at least the Ming dynasty, however, they were greatly improved during the Kangxi reign, likely under the supervision of Zang Yingxuan, the Imperial supervisor who was sent to Jingdezhen in 1681 to oversee the rebuilding of the kilns. The fugitive copper-lime pigment, rather difficult to manage, would have been sprayed onto a layer of transparent glaze via a long bamboo tube and then fixed with another coat of clear glaze.
A similar peachbloom-glazed waterpot, Kangxi mark and period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p.142, pl.125; three further 'peachbloom'-glazed beehive waterpots, Kangxi marks and period, are illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206, and M.Medley, Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, pl.580, and S.G.Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 234.
Two similar peachbloom-glazed beehive waterpots, Kangxi marks and period, were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2013, lot 1904 and 31 May 2017, lot 3012.