A SUPERB IMPERIAL BLUE AND WHITE HEXAGONAL 'DRAGON' VASE - QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

The tall slender baluster vase of hexagonal section, finely painted on each side with a full-faced dragon grasping a Shou medallion above a band of archaistic cicada blades, above further decorative bands containing key-fret, dots and reverse decorated chilong encircling the base, the tall waisted neck with a Shou character between archaistic foliate dragon motifs above and below, flanked by two pierced blue dragon handles, and between further formal borders, the cobalt of brilliant tone
20 1/16 in. (51 cm.) high, box -  Price Realized: HK$32,807,500 ($4,222,424)

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Provenance: J.T. Tai & Co., New York
Evelyn Annenberg Hall

Lot Notes: Previously sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1238.

A seemingly identical vase in The Palace Museum, Beijing, measuring 57.4 cm. high, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), The Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2000, fig. 126, where the authors note that the vase was made under the supervision of Tang Ying who provided a sketch of this innovative form. It is recorded in Taocheng Jishi Bei, 'Account of Porcelain Achievements', that Emperor Qianlong was very pleased with the shape when a sample was presented to him. Furthermore, in 1742 the Eunuch Gaoyu was ordered to deliver to Tang Ying a blue and white dragon hexagonal vase with cloud handles together with instructions for additional pieces to be produced. However, Qianlong requested that the dragons on the body be properly aligned, the handles to be re-modelled and smaller versions of this vase were to be made. It is interesting to note that the present vase is smaller in size (51 cm. high) to the Beijing example (57.4 cm.), and relates to the smaller vases mentioned in the archival evidence.

No other blue and white vase of this exact decoration appears to have been published. However, a smaller blue and white vase (36 cm.) of this form, painted with matching decoration apart from the central motif where the dragons are replaced with a pair of fish below a canopy, was included in a sale held at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1993, lot 69.

A small number of yellow-ground underglaze-blue decorated 'dragon' hexagonal vases of this pattern are known. The first in the Nanjing Museum, is included in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty: Gems of Collection in Nanjing Museum, Shanghai, 1997, no. 29, and again in the Chinese University of Hong Kong exhibition, Qing Imperial Porcelain, 1995, no. 78, where it is noted that these yellow ground vases were specially made to commemorate Emperor Qianlong's sixtieth birthday. A pair of vases from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Nipon of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 7 December 1983, lot 382. Another vase is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, pl 63, Toki Zenshu, Heibonsha Series, no. 16, fig. 9; Sotheby's Hong Kong, Twenty Years, 1993, no. 365, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong 19 May 1982, lot 323 and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 599.

Christie's Hong Kong. The Imperial Sale including Elegance and Artistry. Treasures from a Private Collection. 27 May 2008