Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, London, 06 nov. 2013
A rare flambé-glazed 'Three Rams' vase, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795)
Lot 340. A rare flambé-glazed 'Three Rams' vase, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795); 21cm., 8 1/4 in. Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 GBP. Lot sold 10,000 GBP. © Sotheby's 2013.
finely potted, the globular body rising from a rounded spreading foot, encircled by two double-raised fillets around the body and applied with three ram heads at the shoulder, covered overall with a rich purple-blue streaky glaze thinning to a buff tone around the rams heads, the base incised with a six-character seal mark, neck reduced.
Note: Vases of this form and design appear to have been introduced in the Yongzheng period; see a line drawing of this form included among Yongzheng shapes in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 235, fig. 401:13, where it is calledsanxicun('vase of three beasts of uniform colour'), referring to the kind of animals used in ritual offerings.
For a Qianlong vase with a Ru-type glaze in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see the Museum's exhibition Qingdai danseyou ciqi /Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, cat. no. 88, and for another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 1934. Another Qianlong vase with a Guan-type glaze, in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, is published in S.W. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, London, 1981 (1896), col. pl. LXXVII. For a teadust glazed 'three ram' vase of Qianlong mark and period see one from the collections of T.Y. Chao and Ira and Nancy Koger, sold three times in these rooms, 1979, 1986 and 1992, and once in our New York rooms, 1990, illustrated in Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 157; and a rare celadon-glazed version sold twice in these rooms 8th October 2006, lot 1014, and again, 8th October 2009, lot 1632.

