Lot 217. A small lobed doucai 'Three Friends of Winter' bottle vase, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735). Height 4⅛ in., 10.5 cm. Lot sold: 189,000 USD (Estimate: 30,000 - 50,000 USD). © Sotheby's 2022

the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle, Japanese wood box (3).

Provenance: Japanese Private Collection (by reply).
Hong Kong Private Collection.

Note: Vases of this design are held in a number of museum collections worldwide. See one in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (accession no. M.71.65.8), and two in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC (accession nos F1945.40a-b and F1945.39a-c). Another was exhibited in Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum,  National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 46. A fifth was included in the exhibition  Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns,  Nanjing Museum and the Art Gallery of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Nanjing and Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 61. 

Small delicate vessels of this form may have been placed on scholar's desks to contain flowers. The famous portrait of the Qianlong Emperor seated in his studio in ancient Han dress shows a vase of this shape with two branches of peony, as illustrated in  The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Paintings by Court Artists of the Qing Court , vol. 14, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 45.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 21 september 2022