Lot 3925. A fine and rare copper-red decorated baluster vase, meiping, Qing dynasty, 18th century, 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 800,000. Price realised HKD 920,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Boldly painted around the elongated body in pencil-style with raspberry-red tones of underglaze copper-red to depict a pair of archaistic phoenix with wings outstretched amidst scrolling peony branches, all above a lotus lapet bands on the shoulder and repeated above the narrow foot, the short cylindrical neck with a band of overlapping plantain under double-lines below the lipped mouth rim, box.

Provenance: Purchased from Vandekar by Bluett & Sons, 5th April 1946
Purchased from Bluett & Sons, 16th April 1946
The Cunliffe Collection, no. PC23, sold at Bonhams London, 11 November 2002, lot 83 

Note: When the present vase was sold at auction in 2002, the catalogue refers to a note by Lord Cunliffe that "P. David thought 17th Century or earlier; Basil Gray and Sir Harry Garner thought 18th Century".

This finely drawn pencil-line technique in underglaze copper-red was an innovative style of decoration that was first developed in the Kangxi period, such as the two examples from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, 2000, pp. 183-184, no. 167, a jardiniere painted with fish swimming among waterweeds; and no. 168, a brush washer.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 June 2011, Hong Kong, HKCEC Grand Hall