Lot 9. A rare ge-type quatrelobed vase, Qianlong four-character seal mark in underglaze-blue and of the period (1736-1795); 5 7/8 in. (15 cm.) high. Estimate £120,000 – £180,000 ($180,840 - $271,260). Price realised GBP 182,500. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015.

The vessel is skilfully potted in the shape of four conjoined cylindrical vases, each tapering from the shoulder to a delicately waisted neck and a flared mouth rim, and is covered overall in a lustrous crackled glaze in imitation of Ge ware. 

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 7 November 2007, lot 432. 
Previously in a private German collection.
With S. Marchant & Son, London.

Literature: S. Marchant & Son, Recent Acquisitions, London, 2005, p. 78, no. 46.

Notes: The unusual shape seen on the present vase follows similar shapes from the Yongzheng period. Compare this to a Yongzheng mark and period Ru-type vase in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition Qing Monochrome Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 77. Also see a celadon-glazed vase from the J.M. Hu collection, sold at Sotheby's New York, 4 June 1985, lot 40; and a Guan-type vase from the James W. and Marilyn Alsdorf collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 23 March 1993, lot 735, and again on 2 November 1999, lot 524.

Conjoined-bodied vessels found favour in the Qianlong reign (see a tea-dust-glazed and six-mouthed vase dated to the Qianlong period in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, pl. 96; and a Qianlong mark and period quadruple vase sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 14 November 1989, lot 179). However examples of porcelain vessels with this quatrelobed form produced in the Qianlong reign are rare. One such example, a blue and white vase painted with flowers, is in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Liu Liang-yu, Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 151.

Christie's. APPRECIATING ELEGANCE: ART FROM THE SUI YUAN ZHAI COLLECTION, 11 May 2015, London, King Street