A fine blue-glazed vase, meiping, Yongzheng Six-Character Mark within Double Circles and of the Period (1723-1735)
Lot 3304. A fine blue-glazed vase, meiping, Yongzheng Six-Character Mark within Double Circles and of the Period (1723-1735); 10 3/8 in. (26.5 cm.) high. Estimate HK$2,800,000 - HK$3,500,000 ($362,804 - $453,504). Price Realized HK$4,240,000 ($549,260). © Christie's Images Ltd 2014.
he vase is well potted with high rounded shoulders, tapering to the gently spreading foot. It is covered with an even, brilliant cobalt-blue glaze stopping neatly above the unglazed foot. The interior and the base are covered with a transparent glaze, box.
Note: Monochrome blue-glazed vessels became popular from the early Ming period onward, when the Hongwu emperor decreed that ceramic wares should be used for official sacrifices at the Imperial altars, and blue was the prescribed colour for ritual vessels at the Tiantan, the Altar of Heaven. See a blue-glazed meiping dated to the early part of the 15th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 152.
The current meiping is notable for its brilliant glaze. A slightly smaller Yongzheng-marked meiping (25 cm. high) gifted to the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is illustrated in Ethereal Elegance: Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, pl. 13.
A very similar meiping was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3203.
Christie's. The Imperial Sale / Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014