Finely potted with domed lower bulb of truncated form, the gently curved sides with slightly raised broad band encircling the shoulder, rising to a waisted neck with central rib, all surmounted by a garlic-shaped upper bulb joined to the lower section with elegantly arched handles culminating at both ends in ruyi-head terminals, applied allover with a finely speckled rich olive glaze, the impressed seal mark set within a reserved square and covered in a brown glaze.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's Hong Kong, 21 May 1979, lot. 126
2. Collection of the Sir Joseph E. Hotung Family Trust
3. S. Marchant & Son, London, 2002
4. Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot. 1253
5. Sifangzhai, Shanghai
6. The Ten-views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, no. EK385.

Exhibited: 1. Anthology of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Silver Jubilee Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1985-1986, cat. no. 188
2. Recent Acquisitions 2002, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2002, cat. no. 21
3. Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018.

Literature: 1. Min Chiu Society Exhibition, An Anthology of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 1985, Catalogue, no. 188
2. Sotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years:"1973-1993", Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 329
3. Recent Acquisitions 2002, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2002, cat. no. 21
4. Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018, no. 74

Note: Compare a pair of identical vases sold at Sotheby's London, 10 December 1985, lot 271, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 961, also see in Masterpiece of Ming and Qing ceramics : the sophistication of official kilns, the innovation of commercial kilns, Tokyo, 2011, no. 112 (fig.6). See a rounder base example from the Zandelou, illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, no. 51 (fig.7).

Compare also a robin’s egg-glazed one in this sale, lot.F19A2074; a celadon glazed example from Robert Chang, sold in Poly Xiamen, 4 August 2019, lot. 929 (fig.8); a blue and white example sold in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 27 October 1993 lot. 189, and 3 April 2019 lot. 3306 (fig.9). See, also, a doucai example in the Chang Foundation illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from the Han to the Qing, p. 358, col. pl. 160.; and a celadon-glazed example from the J.M. Hu Family Collection included in Christie's exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, London, 1993, Catalogue, no. 71.