A FINE AND RARE COPPER-RED AND UNDERGLAZE-BLUE DECORATED MALLET-FORM VASE, YAOLING ZUN

Details

A FINE AND RARE COPPER-RED AND UNDERGLAZE-BLUE DECORATED MALLET-FORM VASE, YAOLING ZUN
KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD

Of elegant, high-shouldered form with a single, raised rib at the base of the slender, slightly waisted neck, the sides decorated in rich underglaze-red with four finely drawn roundels reminiscent of bronze mirrors positioned above a band of pointed lappets rising from a herringbone border outlined in underglaze blue, the white glaze of slight bluish tone--9in. (22.8cm.) high

Provenance

J.M. Hu Collection

Lot Essay

Vases of this type can be found in both underglaze-copper-red and underglaze blue. For examples of both types see Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1975, pl. 122. For other examples see John Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 4, Geneva, 1974, no. A528; Sekai toji zenshu, XII, Tokyo, 1955, pl. 27 (Japanese Private Collection); Sir Harry Garner, Oriental Blue and White, London, 1954, pl. 74; The Philadelphia 1949 Exhibition of Ming Blue and White, Catalogue no. 282, p. 156, pl. 15e, Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, vol. XLIV, 1949, no. 223; Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. I, no. 1042; Ausstellung Chinesicher Kunst, Preufuchen Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929, Catalogue no. 811, p. 303; An Exhibition of Noted Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1992, Catalogue no. 105; Qing Dynasty Ceramics, Chubanshe, Taipei, 1987, p. 79; and The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part II, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 199 , no. 49, where it is noted that the form is reminiscent of the lamaist white pagoda popular in Mongollia and Tibet, and the rosette motif also has the flowers of Tibetan Buddhism