A very rare mint-green enamelled bottle vase. Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within double-circles and of the period. photo Nagel Auctions

The spherical body raising to a narrow cylindrical neck, supported on a gently splayed foot ring, applied with a lustrous glaze of soft green tone. 

Provenance: Former Dutch private collection, sold Lempertz, Cologne , 19.11.2004, Lot 180

No other bottle vase of this unusual soft pale-green colour appears to have been published. Its colour was probably inspired by a number of turquoise-coloured glass vessels made in the Imperial Palace Workshops, such as the Yongzheng mark and period bottle vase illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, Grandeur in Qing Glass. The Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, The no.9.

A vase of this shape in aubergine glaze in the Qing Court collection is illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 182, no.165.

Also compare a related blue-glazed vase without a foot ring, bearing a Xuande reign mark and dated circa 1720-1740, illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, p. 59, no. 181

H. 22,5 cm - Estimate 150 000 / 250 000 €

Nagel Auctions. Asian Art. November 3rd 2011. www.auction.de