Lot 602. A copper-red-decorated 'phoenix' mallet-shaped vase, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1662-1722); 5 ¾ in. (14.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 32,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The vase is decorated in underglaze copper-red with two highly stylized phoenixes, each grasping a ring in its beak and each with a tiny spot of underglaze blue to define the eye. The rim has a metal mount.

Provenance: Bluett & Sons, London.
Bonham's London, 5 November 2007, lot 254. 
The Studio of the Clear Garden.

Note: Vases of this mallet or 'horse hoof' shape with similar decoration in copper red are in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng (ed.) in Kangxi Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, p. 108, no. 71; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Sekai toji zehshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, pl. 141; and in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gu taoci ziliao xuancui, vol. II, Beijing 2005, no. 28, See, also, the example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3116 and another sold at Christie's New York, 18 September 2014, lot 795.

Christie's. The Studio of the Clear Garden: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 22 March 2018, New York