Lot 914. Property from the Dawentang Collection. A rare carved white-glazed ‘Cloud’ water pot, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue in three lines and of the period (1662-1722); 7.2 cm high. Price realised HKD 2,794,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 – HKD 1,800,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2026

Provenance: Alice Boney, New York

Bluett & Sons, London, purchased from the above on 9 February 1962

Collection of E. T. Hall, purchased from the above on 13 June 1962, no.125

Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 May 2000, lot 516

Literature: Sotheby’s Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, no. 130

Chinese Ceramics from the Dawentang Collection, Vol. II, Hong Kong, 2019, pp.354-357, no. 52

Peter Y.K. Lam, Imperial Kangxi Porcelain from the Dawentang Collection, Arts of Asia, Spring 2021, p.36, fig. 7

Exhibited: Oriental Ceramic Society, The Arts of the Ch’ing Dynasty, London, 1964, cat. no. 305

Oriental Ceramic Society, The Chinese Scholars Desk, 17th to 18th century, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1979, cat. no.14

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Honouring Tradition and Heritage: Min Chiu Society at Sixty, Hong Kong, 18 December 2020 – 28 April 2021, cat. no. 103

Note : The gently incurving sides are finely carved to depict billowing clouds of ruyi form rising in columns, covered overall with a pale even white glaze of lustrous tone.

Water pots of this type are more commonly found covered with a celadon glaze. White-glazed examples like the current lot are far rarer. A similar Kangxi white-glazed water pot is found in the Shanghai Museum, recorded in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji,vol. 14, Shanghai, 2000, no.127. Compare also to a white-glazed water pot from the collection of Mr. Quincy Chuang, illustrated in An Anthology of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1980, p.164, no.121. For celadon-glazed examples, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Qing Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Periods from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, no.130; and one formerly in the collection of Diana D. Ashcroft, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2017, lot 3013. A pair of this shape but decorated with doucai decorations was formerly in the Greenwald Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2816.