Lot 1049. A rare teadust-glazed oviform vase, Qianlong impressed six-character seal mark and of the period (1736-1795); 5 1⁄4 in. (13.3 cm.) high. Price realised USD 352,800 (Estimate USD 250,000 – USD 350,000). © Christie's 2022

The vase is well potted with an oviform body rising to a short cylindrical neck and is entirely covered in an even and rich olive-green glaze speckled with yellow.

Provenance: Robert Chang Collection, Hong Kong, before 1993.

Literature: Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993, no. 52.

Exhibited: Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993.

Note: Qianlong teadust-glazed vases of this ovoid form are extremely rare. Other examples of teadust-glazed vases of this form include one exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago, Chinese Art from the Collection of James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf, 1970, no. c73, and subsequently sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 23 March 1993, lot 741; and another sold at Sotheby's London, 12 June 1990, lot 283. Compare, also, the slightly larger Yongzheng-marked teadust vase of similar shape but with fluted sides, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 302, pl. 131.

Qianlong-marked vases of related form covered in other monochrome glazes have also been recorded. For example, a Ru-type example from the Robert Chang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 503, and another from the W. W. Winkworth Collection, sold at Sotheby's London, 12 December 1972, lot 149. A blue-glazed vase was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition,  Monochrome Ceramics of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1977, illustrated in the catalogue, no. 43. Kangxi-marked vases of this shape but of slightly different size have also been published. One in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with a 'winter-green' glaze, is illustrated in ibid., Hong Kong, 1989, p. 148, pl. 131; an example covered in a celadon glaze was included in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Monochrome Glaze Porcelain, 1981, no. 75; and another with a lavender-blue glaze, from the Zhuyuetang Collection, exhibited at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is illustrated by Peter Y. K. Lam, in Shimmering Colours - Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods: The Zhuyuetang Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, no. 70.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 25 march 2022