Lot Essay
With its archaistic form, soft greyish-blue Ru-type glaze, and brown dressed foot, the current vase is a deliberate homage to earlier prototypes, in particular archaic bronze hu vases, and Song dynasty ceramics. Such archaism was a court-directed initiative in the eighteenth century, and archaic pieces from the imperial collections were sent to Jingdezhen to be copied in porcelain: Tang Ying, the Superintendent of the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, listed in Taocheng jishi bei ji (Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production) in the thirteenth year of the Yongzheng reign (1735), a number of glazes in imitation of Song wares, including ‘moon-white, pale green and deep green, all copied from ancient pieces sent from the Imperial Palace’.
Two Song dynasty hu-form vases which may have inspired the present vase, from the Qing Court Collection, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 45, no. 39 (with a Ge glaze), and p. 113, no. 101 (Longquan ware, with a celadon glaze).
The National Palace Museum Collection has two examples of similar vases with Qianlong marks, each inscribed on the base with an Imperial poem by the Qianlong Emperor, with lines indicating that these vases functioned as receptacles for flowers (see Obtaining Refined Enjoyment: The Qianlong Emperor’s Taste in Ceramics, Taipei, 2012, pl. 85, 86.). Two further Qianlong-marked examples are illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Vol. Two, London, 1994, p. 216, nos. 874-875, and another pair from the J. M. Hu Collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2851.
Two Song dynasty hu-form vases which may have inspired the present vase, from the Qing Court Collection, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 45, no. 39 (with a Ge glaze), and p. 113, no. 101 (Longquan ware, with a celadon glaze).
The National Palace Museum Collection has two examples of similar vases with Qianlong marks, each inscribed on the base with an Imperial poem by the Qianlong Emperor, with lines indicating that these vases functioned as receptacles for flowers (see Obtaining Refined Enjoyment: The Qianlong Emperor’s Taste in Ceramics, Taipei, 2012, pl. 85, 86.). Two further Qianlong-marked examples are illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Vol. Two, London, 1994, p. 216, nos. 874-875, and another pair from the J. M. Hu Collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2851.