Lot 61. A guan-type trilobed double-gourd-form vase, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795). Estimate £20,000 - £40,000 ($29,140 - $58,280). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016

The vase is well potted in the form of three conjoined double-gourds rising from the three-lobed body to the conforming necks, applied overall with a pale greyish-blue glaze suffused with faint broad crackles. The short trefoil foot is dressed with a brown wash. 7 ½ in. (18.8 cm.) high.

Provenance: From the collection of an English gentleman of title. Acquired prior to the 1950s and thence by descent within the family.

Notes: Compare to two similar vases, one from the Baur Collection, illustrated by John Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, no. 270 (A336), and the other in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 521. Two other related examples of similar form and colour but with distinct crackles in the glaze have been published: one illustrated by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 446, and the other formerly in the Meiyintang Collection and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 April 2011, lot 34. 

Christie's. INSPIRED THEMES: A FINE SELECTION OF CHINESE WORKS OF ART, 10 May 2016, London, King Street