elegantly potted with a baluster body supported on a splayed foot, sweeping up to rounded shoulders and a cylindrical neck interspersed with three horizontal fillets, all surmounted by a wide everted rim, the tall neck flanked by a pair of handles each modelled in the form of an archaistic phoenix, their crowned heads detailed with feathers terminating in furled edges, the bodies reduced to stylised S-shaped scrolls, applied overall with an attractive celadon glaze pooling into a deeper tone at the recesses, wood stand; 19.9 cm, 7 7/8  in.

Provenance: Sotheby's Paris, 18th December 2009, lot 233.
J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

Note: Vases of similar form are more commonly known without handles, such as a slightly smaller vase with Qianlong mark and of the period illustrated in Imperial Perfection. The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors. The Wang Xing Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2004, pl. 72; and another published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 3, Geneva, 1972, pl. A 381, together with a tea-dust glazed example, pl. A 393.

The luminous glaze on this piece, as well as its attractive silhouette with an everted rim and phoenix handles, were loosely based on the celebrated celadon wares made at the Lonquan kilns in Zhejiang province during the Song dynasty.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art from Two American Private Collections, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017, 10:30 AM