A celadon-glazed double-gourd vase. Qianlong Seal Mark And Period . Photo Sotheby's

robustly potted with a compressed globular lower bulb, surmounted by a slightly smaller upper bulb gently rising to a narrow mouth, covered overall in a soft celadon glaze thinning at the rim and leaving an unglazed ring at the bottom, the recessed base inscribed with a six-character Qianlong seal mark; 32.3cm., 12 3/4 in. Estimate 250,000-350,000 GBP. Unsold

PROVENANCE: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th November 1976, lot 541.

NOTE: A closely related vase with cover in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 69; and another is published in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 160. See also a vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, The Hertzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1992, pl. 98; another from the Jingguantang collection, included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 212, and illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, vol. IV, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 37, together with its pair, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 571; and a third example, from the collection of Frederick J. and Antoinette H. van Slyke, most recently sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2011, lot 3020.

A slightly smaller vase is published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 160; a slightly larger example was sold in these rooms, 12th July 2006, lot 142; and another was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th April 1997, lot 581.

An emblem of the unity of heaven and earth and symbolic of fertility and abundance due to its many seeds, the double gourd was used extensively in the decorative arts of China from the Song dynasty.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 09 Nov 2011 www.sothebys.com