A RARE LARGE ROBIN'S EGG BLUE-GLAZED MOONFLASK

Details

A RARE LARGE ROBIN'S EGG BLUE-GLAZED MOONFLASK
YONGZHENG INCISED SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

The convex sides of the circular body centered by a raised medallion, with a pair of leaf scroll handles joining the plain narrow sides to the cylindrical neck below an encircling bowstring band which imitates the molded mouth rim, the whole raised on a rounded rectangular foot, covered inside and out with a thick, opaque glaze of rich turquoise tone mottled and streaked in brownish aubergine
19 3/8in. (49.2cm.) high, box

Literature

The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 33

Lot Essay

It is rare to find a Yongzheng-marked vase of this form and size covered in a monochrome glaze. A flambé-glazed example with differently shaped handles is illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, p. 187, no. 835. It is more usual to find this shape of vase decorated in blue and white, and a Yongzheng-marked example was included in the exhibition, Beauty and the Selfless Mind, and illustrated in the 15th Anniversary Catalogue, The Idemitusu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1981, p. 218, no. 964

This shape of vase is based on an early Ming dynasty blue and white flask decorated in Islamic style and with flat, unglazed back with a countersunk medallion in the center, such as the example in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1981, no. 94. This earlier porcelain type was derived from an Islamic metalwork prototype