This chrysanthemum teapot is clearly related to the elegantly fluted dishes of similar type; see lot 502 in this catalogue. A similarly shaped teapot with a peachbloom glaze bearing a Yongzheng mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, 1989, p. 283, no. 112, and a robin's-egg glazed example was offered in these Rooms, 27 April 1997, lot 727. For blue-glazed Yongzheng-marked examples, see lot xxx, to be sold in these Rooms, 2 November 1999, and another offered at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1992, lot 291.

This very elegant and thinly potted teapot, under a translucent even pale glaze, is a world apart in form, ceramic body and surface decoration from the standard teapots produced in the 18th century. Compare to two Yongzheng-marked teapots in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, one covered in a dark blue-glaze included in the special exhibition Monochrome Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1981, Catalogue, no. 38; and a teadust-glazed example included in the special exhibition, K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1986, Catalogue, no. 58.

(US$155,000-230,000)