A very rare flambe-glazed archaistic baluster vase. Seal mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's

of early bronze lei inspiration, the baluster body supported by a high splayed foot rising to high shoulders and a waisted neck, the shoulders flanked by a pair of elephant-trunk handles and separated by a pair of ridged vertical flanges, applied with four vertical flanges at the neck and foot, covered overall with a lustrous purplish-red glaze, highlighted with cascades of sky-blue, the raised areas and rim reserved in a mushroom-brown glaze, the interior draining away to reveal a pale blue glaze with white striations, the base glazed coffee-brown with grey-blue mottling and incised with the four-character seal mark - 33.4cm., 13 1/8 in. - Lot Sold: 860,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 654.

NOTE: It is very rare to find flambé vases of this form. See a similar vase with the same size and form in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 1998, no. 16. A similarly shaped Yongzheng vase with sky-blue glaze is illustrated in Selected Porcelain of the Flourishing Qing Dynasty at the Palace Museum, no. 62. See a related vase of the Qianlong period with a sky-blue glaze included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 722; a blue and white Qianlong vase of the same form sold in these rooms, 26th October 2003, lot 143; and another Qianlong flambé-glazed vase of the same form sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1986, lot 137.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Oct 08. Hong Kong - www.sothebys.com