A SUPERB CARVED APPLE-GREEN-GLAZED LANTERN VASE
A SUPERB CARVED APPLE-GREEN-GLAZED LANTERN VASE

Details
A SUPERB CARVED APPLE-GREEN-GLAZED LANTERN VASE
QIANLONG IMPRESSED SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

The tall ovoid body and broad neck crisply moulded in relief with a lively pair of ferocious five-clawed dragons, each with finely detailed scales, claws and features, with bulging eyes, thick combed manes and flame-like whiskers, their bodies twisting through flames and clouds above rolling and crashing waves and rocky outcrops around the base, all covered in a glaze of brilliant apple-green tone
17 7/8 in. (45.6 cm.) high
Provenance
A Southeast Asian family collection

Lot Essay

Previously sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2002, lot 714.

The companion vase carved in mirror image to this example was sold in these Rooms, 3 November 1996, lot 730; and included in the 40th Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, In Pursuit of Antiquities, Hong Kong, 2001, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 187. No other vase of this shape, colour and decoration has been published.

The closest known example is a turquoise-glazed vase of this form and decoration in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 455, pl. 137, where a celadon-glazed globular vase with related dragons is also illustrated, p. 462, pl. 144.

Large vases and jars carved with similar dragons striding through clouds and waves are recorded, such as the white-glazed bottle vase illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1986, vol. 1, pl. 135; a celadon-glazed globular vase with a very similar design, but without a reign mark, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha series, vol. 12, pl. 29; and another illustrated by S. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, fig. 183. A celadon oviform jar carved with similar dragons, bearing an impressed Qianlong mark, formerly part of the Fonthill Heirlooms, sold in our London Rooms, 18 October 1971, lot 51, and again at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17 May 1988, lot 75. Compare also the vase without a mark, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 15 May 1990, lot 77, and the Yongzheng period jar under a pale blue glaze, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 3, p. 162.

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