Lot 1575. A fine and very rare yellow-ground and underglaze-blue floral vase, Encircled Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 10 in. (25.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 6,000,000 - HKD 8,000,000. Price Realized: HKD 7,047,500 (USD 907,034). © Christie's Images Ltd 2008.

Finely painted in underglaze-blue with a dense composite floral scroll covering the strongly compressed pear-shaped body and the cylindrical neck in rhythmic curves, bearing peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and rose blooms and buds, and dense foliage, the slender characteristic leaves all delicately curling over at the ends, painted in an underglaze cobalt-blue tone applied in skillful textured strokes varying in pressure of the bursh and purposely layered in places to achieve a 'heaping and piling' effect, with a classic scroll between single lines below the mouthrim and a narrow keyfret border around the waisted foot in cobalt-blue beneath a transparent green enamel. 

Note: It is rare to find vases of this shape emulating the rich fifteenth century combination of underglaze-blue and yellow enamel. A Qianlong version with a globular body rising to a waisted neck was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Jarras Collection, 8 October 1990, lot 361.

The quality of the enamelling and underglaze-blue painting corresponds to the best examples of the Imperial wares of the period. Compare the decoration on the present example with a very similar Yongzheng marked bowl in the Baur Museum Collection, Geneva, illustrated by J. Ayres in Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection, Volume 2, Geneva, 1999, p. 91, no. 210.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale including Elegance and Artistry. Treasures from a Private Collection, Hong Kong, 27 May 2008