Lot 3433. A large Ming-style blue and white moonflask, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 20 in. (50.8 cm.) high. Estimate HK$1,500,000 - HK$2,000,000 ($194,359 - $259,145). Price Realized HK$6,040,000 ($782,437). © Christie's Images Ltd 2014.

The moonflask is finely painted on the front and back in underglaze blue with eight lotus petal-shaped panels, each enclosing one of the Eight Buddhist Emblems, bajixiang radiating from a central raised boss centred by a stylised flower-head and divided by keyfret and lappet bands. The narrow sides are decorated with a band of stylised lotus scroll. The neck, flanked by a pair of scroll handles, is painted with lingzhi scroll and with a keyfret at the rim, which is similarly repeated on the slightly spreading foot. The underside reign mark is effaced.

Provenance: Sold at Christie's London, 7 June 1993, lot 84

Note: The shape of these large Qianlong flasks is based on Ming dynasty fifteenth century prototypes, which had a convex side that was decorated and a flat unglazed back with a countersunk medallion in the centre. For a Yongle (1403-24) example see the flask in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections,Tokyo, vol. 9, 1981, no. 94. These fifteenth century blue and white porcelain flasks were themselves based on silver-inlaid brass prototypes.

Compare with other examples illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, no. 151; in Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 15; in Chinese Ceramics in The Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987; and in Qing Porcelain, M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre, Fribourg, 1987, pl. 154.

Other similar examples were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, May 2006, lot 1239; another moonflask sold at Christie's Hong Kong, December 2010, lot 2826, from the Greenwald Collection; and another example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, April 2010, lot 1802. 

Christie's. The Imperial Sale / Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014