An iron-red and blue and white two-part double-gourd wine warmer and cover, Yang he tang zhi four-character hall mark in black enamel within a double square, 18th-early 19th century © Christie's Image 2003

The globular lower section for hot water with a pair of shaded iron-red animal mask handles and decorated with iron-red dragons pursuing flaming pearls amidst blue clouds, the same pattern repeated on the pear-shaped ewer, while the handle, spout, cover and hollow cylindrical container projecting from the bottom of the ewer are painted with iron-red bats and blue clouds - 6½in. (16.5cm.) high. Lot 321. Estimate $2,000 - $3,000. Price Realized $7,170 

Property from the Benjamin F. Edwards III Collection

Notes: The hall mark, Yang he tang zhi, 'Hall for cultivating harmony', was used on porcelains dating from the Yongzheng through the Jiaqing period. A similar wine warmer with the same hall mark, dated to the Qianlong period, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 June 1998, lot 259, and another somewhat larger example with a Yongzheng seal mark in black enamel was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 25 October 1993, lot 828. Yet another with a black enamel Jiajing mark was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 1 May 2001, lot 542. A wine warmer of this shape, but with different decoration, dated Yongzheng, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by W. E. Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. II, New York, 1949, vol. II, p. 587, fig. 872. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza