Lot 3683. A yellow jade vase and cover, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 13 cm., 5 1/8  in. Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. Lot Sold 1,840,000 HKD (187,652 EUR). Photo Sotheby’s

of compressed form, carved with a baluster body rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck and galleried mouthrim, the neck flanked by a pair openwork scroll handles, above incised scroll designs on one side of the vase, an outstretched bat depicted hovering over the vase amidst lingzhi-shaped cloud swirls, integrally carved with a small baluster jar similarly incised with scroll motifs, all supported on a base carved in the form of gnarled twigs issuing lingzhi blooms, the tapering cover surmounted by a finial in the form of a recumbent chilong, the stone of an attractive yellow colour with slight russet inclusions, wood stand.

Provenance: Spink & Son, Ltd., London.

Note: Charming jade vase groups such as the present were created in a variety of different forms, all carved with similar propitious symbols; a yellow jade group adorned with chilong scrambling above waves crashing against rocks was sold in our New York rooms, 9th/10th October 1987, lot 186; another depicting chilong, lingzhi fungus and clouds, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th September 1992, lot 726; and a white jade group, with a phoenix grasping a lingzhi sprig and the smaller gu vase supported on the back of an archaistic phoenix, was sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 2012, lot 1905.

Sotheby’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 october 2014