VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A MAGNIFICENT CELADON-GLAZED MOONFLASK

Details
A MAGNIFICENT CELADON-GLAZED MOONFLASK
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

The flask is finely incised on each circular face with a lotus meander bearing large and small blooms, curly leaves and trefoils, encircled by a classic scroll, the sides crisply moulded with elaborate lotus sprays divided by drumnails, surmounted by a waisted neck with a ruyi collar and a cup-shaped mouth with further moulded lotus, the strap handles decorated with scrolls and ruyi terminals, all under an attractive pale celadon glaze
19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm.) high

Lot Essay

No other celadon-glazed moonflask of this design appears to be published.

The combination of incised and moulded decoration is especially successful on this large flask. The pale green glaze pools to a slightly darker shade in the incised lines, allowing the design to show through, while the bolder moulded decoration has been confined to the secondary bands where the relief profiles are slightly visible.

Two related examples include a smaller Yongzheng double-gourd shaped garlic-head flask (22.9 cm.) decorated with moulded lotus scrolls, in the Palace Musuem, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, p. 271, pl. 100; and a moulded celadon and underglaze-blue decorated moonflask sold in these Rooms, 26 April 1999, lot 545.

(US$320,000-380,000)

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