A blue and white ‘Bajixiang’ vase, zun, Seal mark and period of Qianlong. Estimate 800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Unsold. Photo Sotheby's

the robust ovoid body supported on a splayed foot, sweeping to a waisted neck and galleried rim, the layered registers of decoration brightly painted in deep shades of cobalt creating a 'heaping and piling' effect, painted to the stout midsection with a wide band of scrolling lotus blooms each supporting one of the beribbonedbajixiang, all below a collar of pendent ruyi lappets and an undulating stem sprouting lingzhi and leafy scrolls, the neck encircled by a crenulated band with upright trefoil forms and the foot painted with two registers each containing elaborate florets chains, inscribed to the base with a six-character seal mark - 27.3 cm., 10 3/4  in.

Notes: This vessel has been inspired by the archaic bronze zun and follows in the Ming bronze renaissance technique of reinterpreting archaic forms, as seen in its rounded shoulders, slimmer form and contemporary decoration. The design is reminiscent of large hu vases flanked with mask handles of the Qianlong period, which were decorated with two rows of lotus scrolls below the bajixiang on the shoulder and varying bands of designs on the foot and neck, such as one sold in these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 3037.

Vases of this type belong to a group of Qianlong blue and white wares discussed by Julian Thompson in ‘Decorative Motifs on Blue and White in the S.C. Ko Collection’, Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, pt. II, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 31, with decoration adapted from 15th century designs but used on a Chinese bronze shape ‘alien to the 15th century’. The ‘heaping and piling’ effect, made in imitation of early-Ming porcelain also gives the vase an added sense of texture and depth.

Compare a slightly larger vase of similar form, but with loops handles issuing from animal heads and decorated with an abstracted archaistic design, sold in these rooms, 21st May 1984, lot 120. A slightly smaller bamboo-root vase of related form, but carved with a taotie motif on the body, from the Robert H. Blumenfield collection, was sold in these rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3030; and another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Zhu mu ya jiao qi [Complete collection of Chinese art. Bamboo, wood, ivory and rhino], vol. 11, Beijing, 1987, pl. 43. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 07 oct. 2015