.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This type of blue and white double-gourd flask with a truncated lower body is very rare. Only two other examples are known, one sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 October 1993, lot 189; and the other in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 27 April 1997, lot 77.
The form of the present vase is recorded in different decorative styles. An example embellished with doucai enamels from the Chang Foundation is illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taiwan, 1990, pl. 160. A celadon-glazed version with moulded dragon decoration, from the J. M. Hu Family Collection, was included in An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 71. An example of this rare form covered in a teadust glaze from the J. E. Hotung Collection was included in the Min Chiu Society Silver Jubilee Anniversary Exhibition, An Anthology of Chinese Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1985, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 188.
Compare also a Yongzheng-marked flask of this shape, decorated with copper-red lotus blooms and underglaze-blue scrolls, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III) - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 200; and a pair of Yongzheng teadust-glazed flasks, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987, fig. 961.
The form of the present vase is recorded in different decorative styles. An example embellished with doucai enamels from the Chang Foundation is illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taiwan, 1990, pl. 160. A celadon-glazed version with moulded dragon decoration, from the J. M. Hu Family Collection, was included in An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 71. An example of this rare form covered in a teadust glaze from the J. E. Hotung Collection was included in the Min Chiu Society Silver Jubilee Anniversary Exhibition, An Anthology of Chinese Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1985, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 188.
Compare also a Yongzheng-marked flask of this shape, decorated with copper-red lotus blooms and underglaze-blue scrolls, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III) - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 200; and a pair of Yongzheng teadust-glazed flasks, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987, fig. 961.