Lot 246. A rare Ming-style blue and white pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, Yongzheng period (1723-1735); 11 5/8 in. (29.5 cm.) high. Estimate: USD 30,000 - USD 50,000. Price realised USD 206,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2008.

Painted in 15th century style with simulated 'heaping and piling' with a frieze of plantain and bamboo in a garden setting between a band of overlapping petals below and a ruyi band above, with bands of foliate scroll and upright overlapping leaves on the neck. 

Note : Compare the very similar vase illustrated in Gugong Buowuyuan Cang Ming Chu Qinghuaci (Early Ming Blue and White Ceramics in the Palace Museum Collection), vol. 2, Beijing, 2002, pp. 354-5, no. 190, which is also dated to the Yongzheng period (Fig. 2).

The shape and decoration of the present vase and the example in the Palace Museum Collection are based on early 15th century prototypes, such as the Yongle vase (Fig. 1) illustrated ibid., vol. 1, pp. 44-5, no. 18. The Yongle example and the Yongzheng vases share a similar slender neck, while later versions of the Qianlong and later Qing periods have a wider neck and more bulbous profile. For a Qianlong example see the vase in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain, Taiwan, 1986, no. 72.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.