A fine guan-type vase, Seal mark and period of Yongzheng

9 octobre 2013

A fine guan-type vase, Seal mark and period of Yongzheng

A fine guan-type vase, Seal mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Sotheby's.

well potted with refined simplicity, the slender ovoid body rising from a splayed base to a waisted neck and slightly flared mouth, set with a pair of tubular lug handles, covered overall in a thick caesius-coloured glaze suffused throughout with a fine network of light grey and colourless crackles, save for the rounded footring dressed in a dark brown wash in imitation of the Song dynasty guan ware, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six character seal mark, old wood box set with a hinged brass bail handle; 31.8 cm., 12 1/2 in. Estimation 3,000,000 - 4,000,000 HKD. Lot vendu: 3,640,000 HKD

Provenance: An old Japanese private collection, from a family active in the wholesale fishing industry since the Edo period. The collection was formed from the Meiji period (1868-1912) until the early 1930s.

No other vase of this form and glaze appears to have been published, although the form is recorded in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 234, fig. 10. As with many Yongzheng monochrome wares this vessel is a reinterpretation of celebrated traditions in both its glaze, which takes after Song guan ware, and the archaic bronze-inspired hu form. However the potter has taken greater liberty with the shape, which also resembles vases of olive form from the Kangxi period through the broadening of the neck and the addition of cylindrical handles.

Compare a vase of related form, but of slightly wider proportions, decorated with peonies in fencai enamels on a coral ground, also with a Yongzheng reign mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 215, pl. 44, and another, but with an iron red hall mark, sold in these rooms, 28th April 1992, lot 174. Vases of this form continued to be made in the Qianlong period, but with a more slender neck and pronounced curve of the body; for example see a yellow ground example with green dragons, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included ibid., p. 442, pl. 124.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 -www.sothebys.com