A flambé-glazed bottle vase, xianwenping, Incised seal mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Sotheby's.

the compressed globular body supported on a slightly flared foot, surmounted by tall cylindrical neck and upturned rim, encircled around the middle section by a double-horizontal rib and with five further ribs around the shoulder and neck, applied overall with a brilliant plum-coloured glaze accented with milky lavender-blue streaks drizzling down from the cream-rimmed mouth over the belly and foot, the underside dressed in a thin toffee-coloured glaze covering the incised four-character seal mark; 21.3 cm., 8 3/8  in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,800,000 HKD - Lot Sold: 1,480,000 HKD

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2nd May 2000, lot 615

The Chinese term for vases of this ribbed form is xianwenping, or ‘string pattern vase’.  A much larger Yongzheng vase of this type was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2006, lot 1255. Compare also a Ru-type vase, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Qing Dynasty Monochromes, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 79; and another, from the Huaihaitang collection, included in the exhibitionEthereal Elegance, Art Museum. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2007, cat. no. 20. The exhibition catalogue also illustrates a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, Auspicious Bouquet, dated 1723, depicting a bouquet of flowers in a Songguan prototype to vases of this type. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 -www.sothebys.com