Lot 186. A massive underglaze blue, red and celadon vase, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Hauteur: 68,6 cm. (27 in.). Estimate EUR 40,000 - EUR 60,000 (USD 46,941 - USD 70,412). Price realised EUR 137,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

De forme balustre, il est orné sur la panse d'une scène continue représentant un dragon volant parmi les nuages et survolant un tigre placé en haut d'un piton rocheux. Le haut col est rehaussé d'un paysage montagneux, un pêcheur au bord d'un lac devant un pavillon. La base émaillée blanc est rehaussée d'une marque apocryphe de l'empereur Chenghua à six caractères dans un double cercle en bleu sous couverte. 

Provenance: Sotheby's Paris, 12 June 2008, lot 189.
Property of a French private collector. 

Note: The combination of celadon green with underglaze cobalt blue and underglaze copper red is relatively rare, no doubt because it was so difficult to fire successfully. This magnificent vase is not only exceptionally large, its copper-red decoration is of particularly fine color. With the coming of the Kangxi reign came renewed imperial interest in porcelain and a demand for high quality and variety. In the early years of the reign the potters revived the combination of underglaze blue and underglaze copper red on single pieces, and with the re-establishment of the imperial kiln complex court demand for innovation resulted in molded surface decoration and the use of areas of celadon green being added to this already challenging palette.