Lot 303. A blue and white 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' bottle vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Height 8 7/8  in., 20 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 25,000. Lot sold 52,500 USD. © Sotheby's

the slender pear-shaped body rising from a spreading foot to an everted rim, painted in bright cobalt with an episode from Romance of the Three Kingdoms between speckled bands at the foot and rim, at the center Zhao Yun, one of the five top generals in the Shu army, seated upon a dappled horse bounding through a mountainous landscape, two bannermen leading the way and a third following on foot, the base glazed white, coll. no. 323.

The Jie Rui Tang Collection.

Provenance: Berwald Oriental Art, London, 2001.

Note: The shape of the vessel, inspired by a Song dynasty form, the free painterly style, and the bands of cobalt blobs indicate that the vase was produced early in the Kangxi reign. A blue and white vase of this shape with a scene of a boy and oxen in a landscape, ascribed to the early Kangxi period, is illustrated in Transitional Wares and their Forerunners, The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1981, cat. no. 94.