Lot Essay
No other example of a Ru-type fanghu of this large size and form appears to have been published. A number of Qianlong-marked Ru, Guan or Ge-type vases of the same form but in a much smaller size (14-15 cm. high) are known in important collections and have been sold at auction including one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1981, fig. 89; and another in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva, vol. 3, fig. A344. A somewhat larger (24.4cm. high) Guan-type vase formerly in the collection of H. Garner in the British Museum is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, no. 235. A Qianlong marked Guan-type vase of slightly larger proportions (41.4 cm. high), with moulded peach-shaped panels to each side of the body and a slightly more flaring mouth was sold at Christie's New York, 18 September 2003, lot 348.