A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT DOUCAI PETAL-LOBED VASE, ZUN
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT DOUCAI PETAL-LOBED VASE, ZUN

YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)

Details
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT DOUCAI PETAL-LOBED VASE, ZUN
YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)
The globular body, trumpet-form neck and spreading pedestal foot which is raised on a circular foot ring molded with thirty-two lobes divided into eight vertical sections by narrow ribs that terminate in a barb at the rims, each lobe painted with flowering leafy vines, all within slender iron-red borders, the interior similarly molded in reverse and covered with a blue-tinged clear glaze, base with apocryphal Chenghua mark
10 1/8 in. (25.9 cm.) high
Provenance
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owners, Whampoa, Guangdong, circa 1890 - 1920s, thence by descent within the family.

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Lot Essay

The only other vase of this exact shape and design that has been published appears to be the example dated to the Yongzheng period in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Selected Porcelain of the Flourishing Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 1994, p. 173, no. 17, and again in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 38 - Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 249, no. 228 (Figs. 1 & 2). The Palace vase is of the same size as the current example, and both are inscribed with an apocryphal Chenghua mark, which would appear to have been written by the same hand.

The construction of these two vases must have presented a number of challenges to the potter, and given the complexity of the form, combined with the intricate, opulent design, it is perhaps not surprising that so few examples have survived into the present day. This type of narrow lobing is more typically associated with smaller vessels, particularly the richly colored monochrome 'chrysanthemum' dishes made during the Yongzheng period, such as the twelve in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 316, pl. 145.

The Palace Museum, Beijing, also contains another vase of this form dated to the Yongzheng period, but which is covered completely in a turquoise-blue glaze and is of slightly smaller size (21 cm. high). See Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi, vol. I, part II, Beijing, 2005, pp. 270-1, no. 121.

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