YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The glaze on this vase is particularly lovely, being of a clear, soft, even, pale celadon. Chinese celadon glazes were appreciated by connoisseurs as early as the Tang dynasty, when the writer Lu Yu (AD 733-804), declared in his Cha jing (Tea Classic) that Yue ware celadon bowls were the best vessels from which to drink fine tea. This admiration for celadon glazes on stoneware vessels continued into the Song dynasty, when they dominated court taste. Celadon-type glazes were applied to porcelain vessels produced at Jingdezhen in the early Ming period, but it was the Qing-dynasty potters of the Kangxi reign who perfected a particularly delicate version of the glaze applied to a very white (low iron) porcelain body. The delicate celadon glaze was colored using only about half the amount of iron found in typical Song-dynasty Longquan celadons, and was further modified in the Yongzheng period to produce the even more finely textured and slightly bluer pale celadon glaze as seen on the current vase. These celadons and the others created with minute variations in tone and texture have been much admired by Chinese connoisseurs and have been given names such as douqing (bean green) and dongqing (eastern green) in the Kangxi reign, and dongqing (winter green) and fenqing (soft green) in the Yongzheng reign. The current vase has a particularly beautiful fenqing glaze.

A Yongzheng blue and white vase and cover of similar size and shape as the current vase, decorated with sprays of auspicious fruit, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 36 - Blue and white Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 118, no. 104.