YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The glaze on the present vase is based on that of Song-dynasty Guan ware, one of the ‘five famous wares of the Song dynasty’. Song-dynasty wares were highly admired by the Yongzheng Emperor, a keen antiquarian who collected and studied material from earlier dynasties. The Yongzheng Emperor is recorded to have specifically ordered that porcelain wares imitating the various stoneware glazes of the Song dynasty be produced at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. In fact, the famous kiln director Tang Yin became particularly well-known for the success of these imitation Song wares. Some of the finer imitation wares bear imperial reign marks, as seen on the base of the present vase.

A Southern Song-dynasty Guan bottle vase prototype, formerly in the Carl Kempe collection, was sold at J. J. Lally & Co.; Christie’s New York, 23 March 2023, lot 881. A Yongzheng vase of this form with a pale grey Ge-type glaze in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Selection of Ge Ware: The Palace Museum Collection and Archaeological Discoveries, 2017, pp. 268-69, no. 131.