Lot 148. A blue and white Ming-style bottle vase, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795). Height 15 1/3  in., 39 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000. Lot sold 100,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

the globular body rising from a splayed foot to a tall waisted neck, molded around the stepped shoulder and the body with raised fillets, finely painted in 'heaped and piled' deep blue tones with a composite flower scroll band, all between lotus-lappet and classic scroll bands at the foot and a ruyi band at the shoulder, the neck with stiff leaf and keyfret bands below a wave band at the rim, the recessed base with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue. 

Provenance: Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, Ltd., London, 2005.

Note: Elegantly decorated with early-Ming inspired motifs, the craftsman of this vase has also successfully simulated the distinctive mottled ‘heaping and piling’ effect of the celebrated 15th century blue and white wares through a deliberate application of darker and thicker spots of cobalt on the design. Beginning with the Yongzheng emperor, successive rulers revisited this famous blue and white pattern. Qianlong period examples include a closely related example in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Treasures of the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 233; one in the Shanghai Museum is published in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 15, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 2; and four vases are illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. III, London, 1996, pl. 2564, one with an elaborate 19th century Ottoman gilt-metal cover. Another vase of this type, from the Toguri Collection, was sold in these rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 5; another was sold in our London rooms, 10th November 2010, lot 102A; and a third vase was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3rd December 2015, lot 426.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 12 sept. 2018, 10:30 AM