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Lot Essay
This very rare vase, covered in a pristine celadon glaze, exhibits a rare shape and is decorated with three rams' heads on the shoulders. It appears that the only other recorded Yongzheng-marked example of this shape with the three rams' heads on the shoulders is a slightly larger (20.3 cm.) vase covered with a flambé glaze, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1369. (Fig. 1) The three ram's heads evenly spaced at the shoulder is most often found on hu-shaped monochrome vases imitating Song glazes and the decorative scheme continued into the Qianlong period, as seen on a Guan-type hu-shaped vase sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 7 July 2003, lot 583.
The truncated shape can be found on other Yongzheng-period imperial porcelains, such as a blue and white vase with a six-character Yongzheng mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Geng Baochang, ed., in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection), Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 392-383, no. 177.
The three rams, sanyang, are an auspicious motif, related both to the sun and to male children, and form a rebus for sanyang kaitai, suggesting prosperity and the coming of spring.
The truncated shape can be found on other Yongzheng-period imperial porcelains, such as a blue and white vase with a six-character Yongzheng mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Geng Baochang, ed., in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection), Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 392-383, no. 177.
The three rams, sanyang, are an auspicious motif, related both to the sun and to male children, and form a rebus for sanyang kaitai, suggesting prosperity and the coming of spring.