Lot 3672. A fine and rare Guan-type washer, Seal mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735), 16.8 cm, 6 5/8  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,620,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.  

the cylindrical body with a flat base, all supported on three short cabriole legs, covered overall save for the tips of the legs with an even attractive pale greyish-blue glaze suffused with a fine network of golden crackles, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark encircled by nine spur marks

Note: Yongzheng brush washers of this type are rare, although a closely related example was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Monochrome Ceramics of Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 112, and sold in these rooms, 12th/13th May 1976, lot 232.

Compare also a Yongzheng mark and period brush washer of this shape, but covered in a white glaze, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Qingdai danse you ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of Qing monochrome wares], Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 61; a copper-red pair of slightly smaller size, illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 3, Geneva, 1972, pl. A 287 and 288; and a further example painted with a floral scroll in the doucai palette, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns], vol. I, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 54.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017