Lot 472. A powder blue and gilt-ground famille-verte rouleau vase, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period. Height 18 in., 46 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Unsold. Photo Sotheby's.

reserved with four upright rectangular panels with birds perched on flowering and fruiting branches, the neck with two panels of flowering plants, all on a bright blue ground gilt with lotus scroll on the body and a wan diaper pattern around the neck, the base glazed white, apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark. 

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE AUSTRALIAN COLLECTOR

There appear to be two variations with similar decoration; those with two rectangular reserves and gilt only on the neck and those with four oblong panels and a further pair of famille-verte reserves on the neck. The additional elaboration on the present example explains why it is the rarer of the two. A closely related example with four panels of famille-verte decoration in illustrated in The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 14, no. 74, p. 94. Another from the Leonard Gow Collection but lacking the reserves on the neck is illustrated in R.L. Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, New York, 1925, pl. XX, fig. 3. Finally a pair of similarly decorated rouleau vases, formerly belonging to the Cleveland Museum of Art, was sold Christie's New York, 21st September 2000, lot 330, and a pair with only two panels from the Goldschmidt Collection was sold in the same rooms, 24th March 2004, lot 205.

Sotheby's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART. 18 MARS 2014 - 19 MARS 2014. NEW YORK -www.sothebys.com