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Lot Essay
This vase with beautifully delicate celadon glaze is unusually large. Two somewhat smaller 18th century celadon-glazed tianqiuping vases, decorated with relief dragons among clouds writhing around the body and neck of the vessels, are in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (see The World's Great Collections - Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 11 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Kodansha, Tokyo, 1982, no. 29) and the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. A slightly smaller tianqiuping vase with pale celadon glaze and low relief decoration of dragon among clouds is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 151, no. 137). The vase bears a six-character underglaze blue Qianlong seal mark. The dragon on the current vase writhes over the whole surface of the vessel, without minor bands and has four-claws, while the dragons on the Beijing vase are confined to the widest part of the vessel and one has five claws, while the other has three. An almost identical Qianlong celadon-glazed vase to the Palace Museum example was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1 November 2004, lot 1141. A similar design can be seen on a large celadon glazed alms bowl in the Palace Museum (see ibid., p. 149, no. 135). A Qianlong celadon-glazed meiping from the Tsui collection also has relief dragons in clouds as its major decoration (see The Tsui Museum of Art - Chinese Ceramics IV - Qing Dynasty, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 34), while a Qianlong celadon-glazed tianqiuping from the same collection is decorated with relief taotie masks in archaistic style (illustrated ibid, no. 35).
The design of dragons amongst clouds was especially popular on vases of this form in the Qing period. A blue and white Qianlong tianqiuping with dragons and clouds is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 36 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 141, no. 127). The same collection has two Qianlong underglaze blue and red tianqiuping vases decorated with dragons amongst clouds (illustrated ibid, pp 230-31, nos. 210 and 211).
The design of dragons amongst clouds was especially popular on vases of this form in the Qing period. A blue and white Qianlong tianqiuping with dragons and clouds is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 36 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 141, no. 127). The same collection has two Qianlong underglaze blue and red tianqiuping vases decorated with dragons amongst clouds (illustrated ibid, pp 230-31, nos. 210 and 211).