Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 December 2010, Hong Kong
A fine Ru-type vase, fanghu, Qianlong six-character sealmark and of the period (1736-1795)
Lot 3050. A fine Ru-type vase, fanghu, Qianlong six-character sealmark and of the period (1736-1795); 15 1/4 in. (38.8 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 2,000,000 - HKD 3,000,000. Price Realized HKD 4,220,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2010
The elegant facetted pear-shaped body of rectangular section with canted corners raised on a tall foot, the two narrow sides set with rectangular 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.
Exhibited: Osaka Municipal Museum, Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 1980, Catalogue, no. 207.
Note: No other example of a Ru-type fanghu of this large size and form appears to have been published. A number of Qianlong-marked Ru, Guan or Ge-type vases of the same form but in a much smaller size (14-15 cm. high) are known in important collections and have been sold at auction including one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1981, fig. 89; and another in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva, vol. 3, fig. A344. A somewhat larger (24.4cm. high) Guan-type vase 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. A Qianlong marked Guan-type vase of slightly larger proportions (41.4 cm. high), with moulded peach-shaped panels to each side of the body and a slightly more flaring mouth was sold at Christie's New York, 18 September 2003, lot 348.