Lot 3077. A peachbloom-glazed beehive waterpot, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 12.5 cm., 4 7/8 in. Estimate 1,000,000 — 1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,600,000 HKD (150,627 EUR). Photo:Sotheby's

finely potted, of classic domed 'taibo zun' form, the rounded sides contracting to a narrow waisted neck below a short lipped mouthrim, subtly incised around the exterior with three medallions, each formed of the curled bodies of archaistic kui dragons, all beneath a grey-tinged crimson-red glaze characteristically suffused with shades of lighter pink and greenish-beige spots imitating the skin of a ripening peach, the greenish-beige spots concentrating around the neck, the recessed base and interior left white, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark in three vertical lines.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4th May 1994, lot 86.

Note: Waterpots of this attractive glaze and form are held in important museum and private collections worldwide; see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142 pl. 125; one illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206; another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 234; and a fourth example from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, published in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares, London 1989, pl. 580. See also a waterpot of this type from the collection of Edward T. Chow and the British Rail Pension Fund, sold twice in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 66, and again 16th May 1989, lot 61; and another from the collections of William B. Jaffe and Evelyn Annenberg Hall, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2013, lot 3069.

The Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai (701-762), known as a notorious drinker, is often depicted leaning against a wine jar of this form illustrated in a porcelain sculpture of the same period which shows the poet seated with closed eyes and a cup in hand, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, op. cit., p. 106, pl. 89. It is also referred to as a qizhao zun because its shape resembles that of a chicken coop. These vessels belong to a group of eight ‘peachbloom’ wares for the scholar’s desk, a complete set of which is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, p. 328.

Sotheby’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 April 2014