Lot 72. An incised lavender-glazed vase, Shunzhi period; 29.5cm high. Sold for US$16,640 © Bonhams 2026

Of high-shouldered ovoid form, incised with large blossoming peony sprays beneath a narrow band of 'cracked ice' pattern, the short neck incised with a wider border of blossoming camellia branches, the rim brown-dressed and interior glazed white, the well-pared base with a shallow foot unglazed, showing the fine porcelain

Provenance: David A. Lownes (1930–2018), Rhode Island and Massachusetts; collection primarily formed in the Boston area.

Note : David A. Lownes was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and summered in Narragansett. He graduated from Brown University (Class of 1953). He served on the Board of Directors of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the Gore Place Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts. He was also affiliated with the Forbes House Museum in Milton, MA and an active member of the Club of Odd Volumes, a society of bibliophiles on Beacon Hill, Boston. A noted private collector, portions of his collection are now represented in the Peabody Essex Museum.

The lavender-blue-tone glaze seen on the present jar is exceptionally rare and apparently not used before the Shunzhi period, according to Michael Butler, Julia B. Curtis and Stephen Little, Shunzhi porcelain: Treasures from an Unknown Reign, 1644-1661, Alexandria, VA, 2002, p. 156.

For a nearly identical example with a cover, see Christie's New York, An Era of Inspiration: 17th-Century Chinese Porcelains from the Collection of Julia and John Curtis, 16 March 2015, lot 3549; and another without a cover can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (gift of Mrs. Walter Bentley, inv. no. c.217-1915) and illustrated by S. Marchant & Son, Recent Acquisitions, London, 2003, p. 42.

Lot 76. A rare ge-type moulded and handled vase, hu, Yongzheng six-character seal mark and of the period; 32cm high. Sold for US$15,360 © Bonhams 2026

Of flattened rectangular hu-form with a tall spreading foot and covered overall with a celadon-gray glaze of ge-type suffused with a matrix of crackles, between the upright lug handles to the narrower sides a band of moulded scroll-leaf decoration, the glaze continuing to the interior neck, the shaped rectangular foot ring brown-dressed, the base glazed and with a six-character Yongzheng seal mark in underglaze-blue.

Provenance: From the collection of Alva Vanderbilt, purchased in New York City prior to 1895, according to receipt

Note : The Yongzheng emperor was particularly enamored of archaic forms and glazes, commissioning porcelains that revived and reinterpreted celebrated wares of antiquity. The present vessel exemplifies this sophisticated revival of antiquity, combining an archaistic hu form with a delicate ge glaze and molded decoration.

Several similar Yongzheng mark and period crackle-glazed hu-form vessels are preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection nos. 中瓷000735N000000000 and 中瓷000736N000000000. See also a related vase with a molded scrolling-leaf band, illustrated in Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, London, 2004, pl. 15, and another sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 236. For related fanghu-form examples without molded decoration, see a smaller vase in the Qing Court Collection and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 227, pl. 205.

Lot 68. A blue-glazed bowl, Jingweitang zhi mark, Daoguang period; 9.8cm diam. Sold for US$12,800 © Bonhams 2026

Of deeply rounded sides with flaring brown-dressed rim, the interior glazed white, the base with a four-character Jingwei Tang zhi mark within a double square.

Note: The mark Jingweitang zhi was recorded by Chen Liu (1863–1929), sobriquet Jiyuan sou, in his 1906 publication Tao ya, where he described porcelains bearing the mark as exclusively celadon-glazed. As Wilson points out, however, in Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, London, 1998, pp. 114–115, no. 47, illustrating a celadon bowl with the same mark, 'not all vessels with this mark are celadon-glazed.'

The identity of the patron or owner associated with Jingweitang zhi-marked porcelains remains uncertain. Wang Qingzheng proposed in Jianming taoci cidian that the group belonged to Agedunbu, a high-ranking Manchu official, while Yang Tingfu, in Qing ren shiming biecheng zihao suoyin, identified Jingweitang as the studio name of Li Hu (zi Duanren, hao Zhucun), a native of Cixi, near present-day Ningbo in Zhejiang province. Since a studio name may have been used by more than one individual, further documentary evidence is needed to establish the identity of its owner, potentially through private correspondence and miscellaneous notes.

For stylistic comparison, see a pair of cobalt-blue bowls bearing Jingweitang zhi marks sold at Bonhams New York, 21 March 2022, lot 163, and another pair, also sold in these rooms, 20 March 2023, lot 224.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 14 September 2026