The vase is of facetted octagonal form and is applied to the neck with a pair of tubular lug handles, covered in a thick bluish-grey glaze suffused with a network of fine crackles, wood stand, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Yokoe Chikken 
A Japanese private collection
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3050.

Exhibited: Osaka Municipal Museum, Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 1980, Catalogue, no. 207.

Note: It is very rare to find a fanghu of this size and exceptional glaze quality. A number of Qianlong-marked Ru, Guan or Ge-type vases of the same form but of smaller size are known in museums and private collections worldwide, including four of varying height from 8.3 cm. to 15 cm. in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Obtaining Refined Enjoyment: The Qianlong Emperor’s Taste in Ceramics, Taipei, 2012, no. 83-86; one in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva, vol. 3, fig. A344 (14.6 cm.); and one formerly in the collection of H. Garner in the British Museum is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, no. 235 (24.4 cm.). Compare also one of similar height (38.5 cm.) but with a more greenish glaze, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1364; and one of slightly smaller size (34.9 cm.) in celadon glaze with moulded decoration sold at Sotheby’s New York, 16 September 2014, lot 158.