Lot 3076. A fine and rare carved celadon waterpot, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 7.3 cm., 2 7/8 in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,600,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,600,000 HKD (150,627 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

well potted in a horse-hoof shape, with steep sides rising up to an incurved mouth with a lipless rim, the exterior meticulously carved under the very pale green glaze to depict freely floating cloud swirls of ruyi form, covered overall in a lustrous celadon glaze, save for the recessed white-glazed base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in two horizontal lines

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17th November 1975, lot 135.

Note: Waterpots of this type are held in important private and museum collections worldwide, including in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 147, pl. 130; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum. K'ang-hsi Ware and Yung-cheng Ware, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 58; one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is illustrated in W.B. Honey, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1927, pl. 7a, from the Gulland Bequest; and a fourth example from the Sir Percival David collection, now in the British Museum, London, is published in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London 1989, pl. 583.

See also two closely related waterpots sold in these rooms, one on 15th April 2006, lot 1607, and the other, 2nd May 2000, lot 609; and a third example sold in our London rooms, 17th November 1999, lot 722. This elegant design of billowing clouds was adapted for the doucai palette under the Yongzheng Emperor; for example see a pair of waterpots illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 112.

Sotheby’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 April 2014