QIANLONG INCISED SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Developed during the Kangxi period, the soft, gentle clair-de-lune glaze is one of the most admired Qing glazes, and was reserved exclusively for Imperial porcelains. The form of the current vases is remarkably rare, and was likely to have been modelled after an archaic bronze in the Qing Imperial court collection, such as the example published in the Xiqing Gujian, ‘Inspection of Antiques from the Zhou Dynasty’. The form first appeared in porcelain during the Yongzheng reign, see for example, a pair of Yongzheng-marked clair-de-lune glazed vases of the same form and comparable height (17.5 cm.) in an Asian private collection, exhibited at Christie’s Shanghai, November 2014, see Catalogue, pp. 50-51, no. 11. Compare, also, a pair of Qianlong-marked vases of the same form from the J. Insley Blair collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2115, which are covered with a pale celadon glaze.