INCISED QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-95)

Several other robin's-egg-glazed vases of this shape are recorded, for example, one in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1982, no. 184; in the Jingdezhen Ceramic Museum, illustrated in Keitokuchin Jiki, pl. 88 (bottom left); one included in An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 49; and another illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, London, 1984, p. 220, fig. 3, which was sold at Christie's Hotel Okura, Tokyo, Part II, 16 and 17 February 1980, lot 838. However the colour of the current vase is unusual in that is has more mauve tone than usual, making it closer to that of the so-called 'peacock-feather' glaze examples, such as the censer sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 1 November 2004, lot 876.
Robin's-egg blue glazes are typically opaque turquoise with overall purplish mottling and are thought to have first developed during the Yongzheng period as a free interpretation of Song dynasty Jun glazes.