Lot 215. An octagonal 'ru'-type vase, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795); height 13 in., 33 cm. Estimate 70,000 — 90,000 USD. Lot sold 110,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of chamfered square section, the slightly tapered upright body supported on a narrow splayed foot, with angled shoulders sloping up to the waisted neck, covered overall in a slightly mottled thick glaze of attractive lavender-gray tone, continuing over the base, the neatly finished footrim dressed with a dark brown slip, the base inscribed in underglaze-blue with a six-character seal mark.

Provenance: Property of a Private Asian Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 23rd October 2005, lot 321.

Note: A closely related vase was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 693; another, 19th May 1982, lot 274; and a third example was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st October 1991, lot 810. Compare also a Daoguang vase, with reign mark and of the period, of this form but covered in a guan-type glaze in the Simon Kwan collection, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing from the Kwan Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 85; and another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Monochrome-Glaze Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 98.