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Lot Essay
The delicate glaze on the present vase is known in the west as 'clair-de-lune', and in Chinese as tianlan you (天藍釉), literally “sky blue glaze,” named for its soft and ethereal hue reminiscent of the clear sky after rain. This subtle tone, prized for its elegance and simplicity, was a technical innovation of the Jingdezhen imperial kilns during the Kangxi period (1662–1722), achieved through high-temperature firing and careful glaze formulation.
Kangxi mark-and-period clair-de-lune-glazed vessels are exceedingly rare, and surviving examples tend to be small, refined scholar’s objects. For example, a brush washer covered with this glaze, measuring only 8.2 cm in diameter, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Geng Baochang in Gugong bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Qing Dynasty Imperial Porcelains from the Palace Museum Collection), vol. 1, part 1, Beijing, no. 117. In contrast, the present vessel is striking not only for its glaze but also for its elegant form. Finely potted in the classic meiping shape, it features a single raised band encircling the neck and a pair of delicately formed, C-shaped “ring handles” at the shoulder, all supported on a short ring foot. The generous proportions of this meiping, among the larger known vessel shapes in this glaze, amplify the serene effect of the monochrome finish. A virtually identical Kangxi mark-and-period clair-de-lune-glazed meiping is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Yang Jingrong in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 94, no. 87.
Kangxi mark-and-period clair-de-lune-glazed vessels are exceedingly rare, and surviving examples tend to be small, refined scholar’s objects. For example, a brush washer covered with this glaze, measuring only 8.2 cm in diameter, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Geng Baochang in Gugong bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Qing Dynasty Imperial Porcelains from the Palace Museum Collection), vol. 1, part 1, Beijing, no. 117. In contrast, the present vessel is striking not only for its glaze but also for its elegant form. Finely potted in the classic meiping shape, it features a single raised band encircling the neck and a pair of delicately formed, C-shaped “ring handles” at the shoulder, all supported on a short ring foot. The generous proportions of this meiping, among the larger known vessel shapes in this glaze, amplify the serene effect of the monochrome finish. A virtually identical Kangxi mark-and-period clair-de-lune-glazed meiping is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Yang Jingrong in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 94, no. 87.