A rare Guan-Type quadruple vase. Seal mark and period of Qianlong.  Photo Sotheby's

comprising four slender almond-shaped vases, each with a waisted neck and foot, joined at middle and interconnected on the interior, the shoulders applied with four ruyi sceptre handles suspending mock rings, covered overall in a thick, opaque mottled greyish-blue glaze, the footrings dressed in a brown slip, the base of each vase inscribed with one character of a four-character reign mark; 16.2 cm., 6 3/8 in. Estimate 5,000,000-7,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30th October 2000, lot 132.

LITERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1795.

NOTE: Multiple vases were first made in the Yongzheng period (AD 1723-35), and became particularly popular with the Qianlong Emperor, but the present form is very rare. One vase of this shape, but with a pale blue glaze, was sold in these rooms, 14th November 1989, lot 179.

The unusual way the reign mark is inscribed, with a single character on each of the four bases, is also seen on other Yongzheng quadruple vases of cylindrical form. Compare a vase with guan-type glaze in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Qing porcelains from the Imperial kilns preserved in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, pl. 149; another with celadon glaze, also in the Palace Museum, published in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 398; and one, also of that shape, with a Ru-type glaze in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in Gugong Qing ci tulu. Kangxi yao, Yongzheng yao/ Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Republic of China: K'ang-hsi Ware and Yung-cheng Ware, Tokyo, 1980, pl.128; and another celadon-glazed version from the J.M. Hu collection, sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 40.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part III - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 04 Apr 2012, 10:15 AM www.sothebys.com