YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Details

A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE ARCHAISTIC BRONZE-FORM BALUSTER VASE
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
Finely painted around the sides in fifteenth-century style with simulated 'heaping and piling' with a continuous frieze of flower scroll between lappet borders, the design repeated on the flared foot and tapered neck, above a narrow band of pomegranate scroll on the shoulder, the decoration on the neck and foot divided by four vertical flanges and that on the shoulder by two flanges and the pair of thick loop handles
12½ in. (31.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong in 1984.

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Lot Essay

This rare vase, with its combination of ancient bronze shape and blue and white decoration inspired by that of early fifteenth-century wares, is very similar to the Yongzheng-marked vase in the Wang Xing Lou Collection illustrated in Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Hong Kong, 2004, pp. 40-1, no. 7. A Qianlong-marked example, however, was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 26 October 2003, lot 143. The same shape can be seen on a vase of comparable size, with Yongzheng seal mark, covered with a Ru-type glaze, illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi, Beijing, 2005, vol. I, part II, pp. 260-1, no. 116. Like the two blue and white vases, this latter vase, with its combination of the archaic bronze shape with a glaze imitating a Song dynasty Ru glaze, typifies the reference to earlier periods seen on Qing Imperial pieces.

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