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Lot Essay
These exceptionally fine vases are very rare and only a few other examples are known. A pair, formerly in the T.Y. Chao Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lots 298 and 299. A single one, formerly in the E.T. Chow Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 134; another was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 133; and one was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 October 1994, lot 618.
Small delicate vases of this type were displayed in the palace as receptacles for flowers, possibly on a scholar’s desk. Collected in the Palace Museum is a portrait depicting the Qianlong Emperor dressed in Han attire in a scholar’s studio, together with a monochrome lobed vase of related form to the current pair, containing flowers and placed on a stand on the table. This portrait is illustrated in the front cover of Tushuo Qinggong ciqi dang an – wenfang juan, Beijing, 2016. Compare also to another type of small doucai vase also with a lobed body and long neck, decorated with the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ motif, such as the one in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1986, pl. 46; and another one in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 142.
The present vases also have illustrious provenance. Formerly in the collection of Li Chi Bai of Guangzhou, they were included in the Royal Asiatic Society exhibition in Shanghai in 1908, published by A.W. Bahr in 1911, and had not been recorded elsewhere until now.
Small delicate vases of this type were displayed in the palace as receptacles for flowers, possibly on a scholar’s desk. Collected in the Palace Museum is a portrait depicting the Qianlong Emperor dressed in Han attire in a scholar’s studio, together with a monochrome lobed vase of related form to the current pair, containing flowers and placed on a stand on the table. This portrait is illustrated in the front cover of Tushuo Qinggong ciqi dang an – wenfang juan, Beijing, 2016. Compare also to another type of small doucai vase also with a lobed body and long neck, decorated with the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ motif, such as the one in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1986, pl. 46; and another one in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 142.
The present vases also have illustrious provenance. Formerly in the collection of Li Chi Bai of Guangzhou, they were included in the Royal Asiatic Society exhibition in Shanghai in 1908, published by A.W. Bahr in 1911, and had not been recorded elsewhere until now.