A fine and rare peachbloom amphora. Mark and period of Kangxi

elegantly potted with a slender tapering body rising to high shoulders and a tall slender neck and everted mouth, covered overall with a peachbloom glaze with characteristic mushroom-coloured mottling, the inside of the mouth of rich apple-green colour, the glaze neatly stopping above the foot, inscribed on the base with a six-character reign mark in underglaze-blue. 15 cm., 5 7/8 in. Estimate 800,000—1,200,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 2000, lot 868.

NOTE: Vases of this amphora form are included in the group of eight 'peachbloom' wares for the scholar's table. See a complete set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 237. Such sets are also discussed by Ralph Chait in 'The Eight Prescribed Peachbloom Shapes Bearing K'ang-Hsi Marks', Oriental Art, Winter 1967, vol. III, no. 4, pp. 130-137, where the author notes that these vases are called Guanyin ping (Guanyin bottles), as the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, is often depicted holding a similar form of vessel in her hand. They are also referred to as liuye ping (willow-leaf bottles) in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 222, since its elegant form resembles that of a willow leaf.

Peachbloom vases of this form are, for example, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Taoci, vol. 3, Shanghai, 1988, pl. 163; and in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in Liu Liang-yu, Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares. A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 5, Taipei, 1991, p. 57 top left. Compare also a vase, in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, included in the museum's exhibition The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 29; another, from the Jingguantang collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 557; and a third piece sold in these rooms, 2nd November 1998, lot 367.

The 'peachbloom' glaze is a Kangxi period innovation which is seen as the sophisticated variant of the traditional copper-red glaze. It is a technically demanding glaze to produce as it involves two or possibly three stages of manipulation of the copper and its oxides to produce the well known 'peach' red and green tones. Control of the glaze is most difficult and requirs the highest level of skills on the part of the potter who, according to Nigel Wood, achieved the peach-bloom effect by using a copper-lime pigment sandwiched between clear glazes, with the pigment itself probably applied by spraying. For a detailed discussion of the Qing peach-bloom glaze see Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes. Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, Philadelphia, 1999, pp. 182-183.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Apr 09. Hong Kong www.sothebys.com photo courtesy Sotheby's