Lot 1634. A teadust-glazed compressed pear-shaped vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 33.9 cm., 13 3/8 in. Estimate 400,000—600,000 HKD. Lot Sold 500,000 HKD. photo Sotheby's 2009

the body of compressed globular form rising from a short splayed foot to a tall cylindrical neck, covered overall in a thick olive-green glaze with golden speckles, the glaze stopping just before the footring, the base with six-character seal mark.  

Provenance: A Japanese Collection.

Note: This vase is a fine and rare example of the particularly stunning effects of employing teadust glaze on a large vase inspired by an archaic bronze form; see a closely related example, formerly from the Edward T. Chow Collection, included in the exhibition One Man's Taste. Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, Galleries of the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1988, cat. no. C17; and another sold in these rooms, 23^rd October 2005, lot 306. Compare a much smaller vase of similar form, with a Yongzheng reign mark and of the period, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1980, pl. 152. See also another smaller Qianlong vase of related hu shape with a celadon glaze illustrated in Qingbai ciqi shangjian, Shanghai, 1994, pl. 195.

It is rare to find a hu of this large size in any monochrome glaze, or with moulded horizontal bands, although a number of large Qianlong blue and white hu without the concentric bands and decorated with flower scroll designs are known; see the vase illustrated ibid., pl. 163; and another included in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 58. This type of large vase can also be found decorated in doucai enamels, such as the piece in the Chang Foundation, published in James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 161.

For the archaic bronze prototype compare the hu excavated from a Western Han tomb dated before 179BC at Qianping, Yichang, Hubei province, illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1976, no. 2, p. 124, fig. 12.