Lot 98. A carved celadon-glazed, blue and copper-red beaker vase, gu, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 46cm (18in) high. Sold for £13,750 (€17,855). © Bonhams 2001-2016.

Of archaistic form with a bulbous mid-section supported on a gently spreading foot, raising to a elegant trumpet neck, the exterior finely decorated with eight underglaze blue panels each enclosing a riverscape scene scattered with trees and figures, the details highlighted in copper-red, all reserved on an attractive celadon ground of olive-green colour densely carved with scrolling foliage issuing blossomiong peonies. 

Provenance: acquired from Heinrich Peters Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, 19 October 1966
A European private collection, and thence by descent

Note: The decorative palette of the present lot, combining the techniques of incising motifs on a monochrome ground and rendering narrative scenes in cobalt blue, is considerably rare. Compare a related brushpot, similarly decorated with underglaze blue and copper red landscape panels reserved on a carved celadon ground, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, p.242, no.220.

Bonhams. AUCTION 23237: FINE CHINESE ART, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET