Lot 3607. A rare white-glazed beehive waterpot, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722), 12.9 cm, 5 in.  Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD. Lot sold 625,000 HKD  (75,632 EUR) (80,431 USD). Photo: Sotheby's.

of classic 'taibai zun' form, the domed hemispherical body with rounded sides tapering to a short waisted neck, the exterior finely moulded and carved with three coiled chilong medallions, the exterior applied with an even milky-white glaze, the countersunk base inscribed in underglaze blue with a three-column six-character reign mark 

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20th November 1984, lot 471.

Note: Beehive waterpots of this shape are well-known with peachbloom glazes but those covered in other monochrome glazes were produced in smaller numbers. A closely related waterpot in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 228; one from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 111; another in the Koger Collection, illustrated in J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl. 139, was sold in our London rooms, 16th May 2012, lot 171; another from the Riesco Collection, illustrated in Edgar E. Bluett, The Riesco Collection of Old Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. 61 right, was sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 430; and a fifth example exhibited on loan at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, from the collection of Mrs Yale Kneeland, was sold in our New York rooms, 1st June 1994, lot 371, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 26th April 1999, lot 507.

See a peachbloom-glazed beehive waterpot incised with archaistic dragon roundels, from the collection of the descendants of Dudley L. Pickman (1779-1848) and General Charles G. Loring (1828-1902) to be offered in the sale Chinese Art from Two American Private Collections, lot 1113. Compare also a yellow-glazed waterpot of similar shape and size, incised with dragon roundels, in the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, published in Rosemary Scott, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, pp. 30-31, no. A508.

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