Lot 3385. A blue and white bottle vase, Qianlong six-character seal mark and of the period (1736-1795); 14 3/4 in. (37.3 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 1,060,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

The vase is well potted with a globular body rising from a splayed foot to a tall neck flaring at the rim. The body is painted with a broad frieze of composite flower scroll above a band of petal lappets and below a trefoil collar and foliate scroll bands on the shoulder, with a band of upright leaves at the base of the neck and a further trefoil band pendent from a band of cresting waves at the top.

Provenance: A Japanese private collector, acquired in the 1970s.

Note: Four vases of this pattern are illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. III, London, 1986, p. 1105, no. 2564; where they have been fitted with metal mounts to suit Ottoman use. Other examples include one illustrated in Qingdai Ciqi Shangjian, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 165; one from the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, part 2, vol. 15, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 2; and one sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1673.