Lot 105. A rare blue glass vase, Wheel-cut mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735);  13.5 cm., 5 1/4  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD (68,410 - 91,213 EUR). Lot sold 812,500 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

of archaistic hu form, the compressed globular body rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck and flared mouthrim, the base of the neck bordered with a raised band, the splayed foot encircled with an indented border, the concave base wheel-cut with a four-character reign mark within a square border, the glass of a translucent sapphire-blue colour.

Note: At the beginning of the Yongzheng period, the Imperial glasshouses established in the 35th year of the Kangxi reign (1696) were already producing high quality monochrome vessels, the vast majority unmarked, and manufacture was becoming increasingly systematic and skilled. In the 2nd year of the Yongzheng reign (1724), the Emperor took an active interest in the output of the Zaobanchu, proclaiming that 'from now on, whenever it is possible to put reign marks, such marks should be inscribed on the items'.

Yongzheng reign-marked vases are rare, and only a small number is preserved in museum and private collections. This form of this particular vase demonstrates the technique of manufacture in the early years of glass production, when complex shapes were separately constructed. The pronounced foot would have been separately blown and later fixed to the main body. The rich purple tone of the blue was deliberately created to achieve a successful simulation of sapphire, a rare and precious stone at the Imperial court.

The only other recorded glass vase of this colour and form is a larger example of more compressed form, but sharing the same unusual raised band at the shoulder, from the collection of H.R.B. Abbey, illustrated in the Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935 - 6, Royal Academy of Arts, London, no. 2735, and now in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. 

For a Yongzheng blue glass vase of fluted form, which shares the same wheel-cut mark as the current example, see Elegance and Radiance. Grandeur in Qing Glass. The Andrew K. F. Lee Collection, The Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 114, no. 16. For a Yongzheng blue glass vessel sold at auction, see the zhadou from the Shorenstein collection, illustrated by Spink & Son, Minor Arts of China IV, London, 1989, no. 109, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 2915.

Sotheby's. Yongzheng – The Age of Harmony and Integrity Hong Kong, 07 avr. 2015