YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

There is only a very small group of yellow-ground blue and white porcelains from the Yongzheng period, likely to do with the complexity of the manufacture process, which involves at least firing twice in the kilns. Most surviving examples were made in small sizes such as jars, bowls and small vases. Examples include a smaller Yongzheng-marked pear-shaped vase (25.5 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1575; a small Yongzheng-marked jar (9.4 cm.) sold at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1218; and a Yongzheng-marked bowl in the Baur Museum Collection, Geneva, illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection, vol. II, Geneva, 1999, p. 91, no. 210. Large vases decorated in underglaze blue and yellow enamel like the current example are extremely rare.

There are also vases of similar design and form but decorated in underglaze blue only. The National Palace Museum has a Yongzheng-marked blue and white vase of the same form and almost identical decoration, with slightly different decorative bands around the mouth, foot and shoulder, illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty Book 1, Taipei, 1968, p. 76, pl. 6. It is interesting to note that the National Palace Museum example has remarkably similar decorations to the current vase in underglaze blue, but is almost half its size (28.7 cm.).

The current form and design are also better known on Qianlong-period blue and white porcelains, such as a Qianlong-marked hexagonal form vase with a very similar floral scroll design, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, cat.no. 565; and another in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gems of the Official Kilns, Taipei, 1993, pl. 84.