with a bulbous body rising from a short splayed foot to the waisted neck and flared mouth, the upper shoulder bordered with three loop handles, the lower body with two raised fillets, above a crisply moulded band of overlapping lotus petals, covered overall save for the unglazed footring with an even bluish-green glaze, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark.

Note: Of all the monochrome porcelains created under the highly exacting standards of supervision at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen in the Yongzheng period, celadon-glazed wares are among the most exquisite. The present piece is particularly elegant and well-balanced in its shape and brilliant in its glaze. Porcelain wares made under the supervision of Nian Xiyao and Tang Ying, superintendents at Jingdezhen during the Yongzheng reign, were designed according to the Emperor's personal taste and requirements. This piece reflects the Yongzheng Emperor's interest in simplicity of shape and design and perfection of quality.

It is extremely rare to find a piece of this pleasing shape, although one companion piece is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain. Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 131. Compare also a vase of identical form and decoration, slightly smaller than the current example and with a more bluish-green glaze, illustrated in James Spencer (comp.), Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, cat. no. 131, and Sotheby's Hong Kong – Twenty  Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 319, originally sold in these rooms, 21st May 1979, lot 120, and more recently 2nd May 2005, lot 514.

Sotheby's. Qing Imperial Porcelain A Private Collection, Hong Kong, 08 Oct 2019, 10:00 AM