Lot 3390. A very rare Ming-style yellow-ground blue and white facetted vase, Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 6 5/8 in. (16.2 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 4,000,000 - HKD 6,000,000. Price Realized HKD 6,640,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

The vase is finely painted in washed tones of cobalt blue and simulated 'heaping and piling' with a continuous leafy meander of morning glories in various stages of bloom around the square body with facetted angles. The splayed foot is decorated with a cloud collar border with alternativing large and small ruyi-heads, and a keyfret border in green under the lipped mouth rim. The cylindrical neck of the vase is flanked with a pair of two-horned lion-mask handles in relief, each with an arch extending from its mouth, box.

Provenance: An American Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 27 April 1997, lot 67.

Literature: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 138

Note: The present vase with its unusual facetted corners is an inspiration from Ming dynasty Xuande period prototypes. Two earlier Ming dynasty examples are included in the Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Wares, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1980, and illustrated in the Catalogue, figs. 6 and 7. There are two similar examples of this rare form decorated similar flowers in underglaze blue on a yellow-enamelled ground. The first without the yellow enamel within the flame motifs on the cylindrical neck, in the Baur Collection is illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneve, 1999, p. 94, no. 212 (A577); and in the Percival David Foundation, now housed at the British Museum, PDF 781. The PDF example lacks the flame motif on the cylindrical neck.