Lot 3623. A fine blue and white 'phoenix' mallet vase, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722), 24 cm, 9 1/2  in. Estimate 2,500,000 — 3,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,220,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the bell-shaped body rising to a tall tubular neck with a slightly lipped rim supported on a raised footring, painted on both sides with a highly stylised kui phoenix design, its head on the neck of the vase dissolving into abstract blue scrolls draping over the shoulders against a plain white ground, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark written in three columns within a double circle

Provenance: Christie's New York, 2nd December 1989, lot 358.
The Meiyintang Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th October 2011, lot 32.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 754.

Note: A vase of this design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection], Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, part 1, pl. 47, together with a Yongzheng version, part 2, pl. 40; another Kangxi vase in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is published in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan [Porcelain section], Qingdai [Qing dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 2. The design was also executed in underglaze copper red; for an example in the Shanghai Museum see Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 14, pl. 24; and for one in Taipei, Gugong Qing ci tulu. Kangxi yao, Yongzheng yao/Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Republic of China. K'ang-hsi Ware and Yung-cheng Ware, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 21.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017