A fine and rare underglaze-blue polychrome enamel 'Phoenix' vase, fanghu. Qianlong seal mark and period - Sotheby's

of rectangular section, the pear-shaped body rising from a spreading foot to a waisted neck, flanked by a pair of elephant handles suspending fixed rings, intricately enamelled to the front and back face with a pair of phoenix descending in flight, grasping in their beaks leafy meandering stems bearing large peony blooms, the sides similarly decorated with further scrolling peonies, all between stylised ruyi lappets, the foot skirted with a pendent stiff leaf band, inscribed to the base with a six-character seal mark; 15.4cm., 6 1/8 in. Estimation: 80,000 - 120,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Christie’s London, 16th June 1986, lot 52.

EXHIBITED: National Museum of History, Taipei.

NOTE: It is rare to find vases of this form and decoration, although a closely related example, possibly the pair to the present piece, from the collection of Sir Frederick C. Bruce and now in the City Art Gallery, Bristol, was exhibited at the Bethnal Green Museum between 1913-1923, at Dartington Hall in 1949, and was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, cat. no. 215. The Bruce vase is also illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. LXXXVI, fig. 2a, and was sold in these rooms, 12th May 1953, lot 129. Jenyns, ibid., pl. LXXXVI, fig. 2b, illustrates another Qianlong mark and period vase of the this form and phoenix motif but painted in underglaze blue and copper-red enamels. Compare a third closely related piece, but of slightly different proportions, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 16thMay 1977, lot 208.
Qianlong vases of this type are better known from copper-red decorated examples; see one illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 176; another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th November 1978, lot 281; and one sold in these rooms, 12th June 2003, lot 183.

The decoration of a pair of flying phoenix confronting a flaming pearl above a peony bloom may be found on Qianlong mark and period wares of different shape; for example, see a moonflask from the Matsuoka Art Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, pls. 92-3. Hu form vases of this type were also decorated with dragons as seen on the vase sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th April 2000, lot 600, painted in puce and underglazeblue enamels. 

Porcelain vases of this type may have been inspired by contemporary jade examples; see a finely carved white jade vase of this shape and same design of two phoenixes and flowers, attributed to the Qianlong period and from the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 25.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 15 mai 2013, www.sothebys.com