Lot 451. A fine and rare celadon-glazed vase, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735). Height 10 in., 25.3 cm. Estimate 150,000 — 250,000 USD. Lot sold 665,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's

of tall cylindrical form with gently curving sides, tapered at the base to meet the short foot, rising to a high rounded shoulder sloping gently up to a short straight neck, covered overall with an even pale bluish-green glaze continuing under the base, six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle. 

Property from the estate of Angela Cuccio Schirone.

Note: The simplicity of this vase, from the minimalist form and subtle translucent glaze, conceals the mastery involved in creating such a piece. The proficiency required in understanding the chemical compositions and the firing of such monochrome vessels is reflected in the saying, ‘Nine failures for ten charged kilns’. The delicate, almost watery, tone of celadon is a Kangxi innovation which was produced by lessening the amount of iron typically found in Song dynasty Longquan celadons. This glaze was further modified during the Yongzheng period to the finely textured bluish tone as seen on the present vase.

Two closely related examples were sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 160, and the other, 30th October 2002, lot 227. A vase of this type but with a cover, in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, is published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 192; a pair from the J.M. Hu collection was sold in these rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 34; another pair from the British Rail Pension Fund was sold twice in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th November 1976, lot 524, and again, 16th May 1989, lot 60; and a third pair was sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September 2004, lot 310.

A Yongzheng blue and white jar of this form and size, also with a cover, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 104; and another from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is included in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 39.

Angela Cuccio Schirone was a well-regarded editor at Women Wear's Daily, and her husband Charles Schirone was a professor of English at New York University.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York | 18 Mar 2014, 10:30 AM