Lot 1997. A peachbloom brush washer, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 11.5 cm., 4 1/2 in. Estimate 600,000-800,000 HKD (57,843 — 77,125 EUR). Lot Sold 740,000 HKD (71,340 EUR). Photo Sotheby's

delicately potted of compressed circular form, supported on a shallow tapering foot, the incurved, rounded sides covered with a fine purplish-pink glaze with copper-red flecks, the interior and base left white and inscribed with a six-character reign mark written in three lines.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4th/5th November 1997, lot 1519.

Note: The present washer, also known as tangle xi or gong-shaped washer, is discussed as one of the eight peachbloom wares for the scholar's desk by Ralph Chait in 'The Eight Prescribed Peachbloom Shapes Bearing Kang Hsi Marks', Oriental Art, Winter 1957, vol. III, no. 4, pp 130-37. A similar washer of this type can be found together with a complete set of peachbloom wares in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 237. Another example was sold as part of a set from the Jingguantang collection at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 557.

Compare also a washer from the collection of Edward T. Chow and sold most recently in these rooms, 8th April 2009, lot 1657; another from the H.M. Knight collection, included in the exhibition 4000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 300, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1982, lot 263; and another vessel published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 820. 

This elegant shape also appears during the Kangxi period in a claire-de-lune glaze, as seen in the brushwasher from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat, sold in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 672.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. Hong Kong. 05 Oct 2011