Lot 3203. A fine and rare blue-glazed vase, meiping, Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 11 3/8 in. (29 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 2,500,000 - HKD 3,500,000. Price realised HKD 3,640,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013.

The vase is well potted with high rounded shoulders, tapering to the gently spreading foot. It is covered with an even, brilliant cobalt-blue glaze stopping neatly above the unglazed foot. The interior and the base are glazed white. 

Provenance: Sold at Christie's London, 11 June 1990, lot 162.

Note: Monochrome blue-glazed vessels became popular from the early Ming period onward, when the Hongwu emperor decreed that ceramic wares should be used for official sacrifices at the Imperial altars, and blue was the prescribed colour for ritual vessels at the Tiantan, the Altar of Heaven. See a blue-glazed meiping dated to the early part of the 15th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 152.

Meiping vase, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), early 15th century. Porcelain with dark blue glaze, 13 in. (33 cm); Diam. of rim: 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm); Diam. of base: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); Diameter: 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm). Rogers Fund, 1925, 25.13 © 2000–2018 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The current meiping is notable for its brilliant glaze. A slightly smaller Yongzheng-marked meiping (25 cm. high) gifted to the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is illustrated in Ethereal Elegance: Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, pl. 13. 

A very similar meiping was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1630.  

A fine blue-glazed meiping, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 30.2 cm., 11 7/8 in. Sold for 1,460,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1630. photo Sotheby's 2009

Cf. my post: A fine blue-glazed meiping, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735)

Christie's. Imperial Chinese Porcelain: Treasures from a Distinguished American Collection, Hong Kong, 27 November 2013. SALE 3265