The vase is of globular form with bulbous body and cylindrical neck. The exterior is covered with a glaze of rich blue tone thinning to a slightly paler shade below the mouth rim, and pooling in a thick line above the foot. The interior and base are applied with a transparent glaze. The base is inscribed with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's London, 9 June 1992, lot. 261
2. The Ten-views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, no. FR358.

Exhibited: Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018.

Literature: Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018, no. 47.

Note: The rich cobalt blue seen on the current vase is sometimes referred to as 'sacrificial blue'. This name derives from the use of vessels bearing this colour glaze during sacrifices at the Imperial Altar of Heaven. In AD 1369 the first Ming dynasty emperor Hongwu issued an edict declaring that the vessels used on the Imperial altars should henceforth be made of porcelain. Each altar was associated with a specific colour of porcelain, and in addition to blue being used on the Altar of Heaven, red was used on the Altar of the Sun, yellow on the Altar of Earth, and white on the Altar of the Moon.

Compare examples with this cobalt blue glaze and similar size included in the exhibition, The Wonders of the Potters Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1984, no. 85 (fig.3); another one from the Budo Takashiro Collection, was sold at Christies Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 3275. See also, a slightly taller one from the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition catalogue Qing Imperial Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 66 (fig.4). Another example with a less globular body is in the Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated by J. Ayers and M. Sato in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Volume 15, Qing Dynasty, Tokyo, 1983, p. 199, no. 272.