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5 avril 2012

A Ru-type gu-shaped vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795)

A Ru-type gu-shaped vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795)

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Lot 4. A Ru-type gu-shaped vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 17.2 cm., 6 3/4 in. Estimate 1,000,000-1,500,000 HKD. Lot Sold 2,180,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

well potted and modelled after the archaic bronze gu wine vessel, the tall slender body with a wide, flaring neck rising from a short middle section and a bell-shaped mock foot, the lower sections decorated with vertical flanges, covered overall in a thick, opaque, densely crackled greyish-blue glaze, the foot dressed in a brown slip, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark.

LITERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1792.

NOTE: Vases of this form come in a variety of related glaze tones, some described as 'guan', sometimes showing a brown-dressed foot rim to suggest the dark body of Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) guan ware, others as clair-de-lune, while the somewhat opaque, crackled greenish glaze of the present piece is more immediately reminiscent of Song 'Ru' ware.

A similar vase in the Tokyo National Museum is published in Tōkyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku: Chūgoku tōji hen / Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1988-90, vol. II, no. 713; one with a guan-type glaze in the Palace Museum, Beijing, in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. II, pl. 244. A vase of this form from the Eli Lilly collection was included in the exhibition Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1983, catalogue p. 341, fig. 24; and a similar vase without flanges is in the Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. II, pl. 276. A very similar piece from the collection of J.M. Hu was sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 63; and a similar pair of beakers, included in the exhibition Qing Mark and Period Monochromes and Enamelled Wares, S. Marchant & Son, London, 1981, cat. no. 4, was sold in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 688

Vase in shape of ancient ritual vessel, Qing dynasty, Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795) (2)

Vase in shape of ancient ritual vessel, Qing dynasty, Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795), porcelain with light-blue glaze, Jing Dezhen ware, 6 3/4 x 4 7/8 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Lilly, 60.124 © Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis

The shape, which ultimately is based on an archaic bronze ritual vessel shape known as gu, was similarly reproduced with a guan-type glaze already in the Chenghua period (AD 1465-87); see A Legacy of Chenghua: Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C 37.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part III - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains, Hong Kong | 04 avr. 2012

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