Lot 917. A peachbloom-glazed seal paste box and cover, yinse he, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1662-1722). Estimate USD 20,000 - USD 30,000. Price realised USD 75,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016

The box and cover are of cushion form and are covered with a mottled and speckled glaze of apple-green color suffused with pale blush stopping neatly above the foot. 2 5/8 in. (7.2 cm.) diam. 

Provenance: Mary Stillman Harkness (1874-1952) Collection.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessioned in 1950.

Notes: This type of seal paste box forms one of the ba da ma or 'Eight Great Numbers', a group of eight specific vessels covered in a peachbloom glaze. 

A similar example from the Jingguantang Collection was sold as part of a complete set at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 557. Others are in museum collections including the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 141, col. pl. 124; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, pl. 138; and the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong Porcelain, Taipei, 1988, no. 11.

Christie's. Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15 September 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza