Page 292 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

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PROPERTY OF A HONG KONG COLLECTOR 清乾隆 月白釉蒜頭瓶
《大清乾隆年製》款
A RARE CLAIR-DE-LUNE GLAZED
VASE 來源：
SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF 仇焱之（1910-1980年）收藏
QIANLONG 香港蘇富比2008年4月11日，編號2991

elegantly potted with a compressed globular
body supported on three tapering foot, rising to
a slender cylindrical neck and sweeping up to a
garlic-form mouth, unctuously applied overall
with a clair-de-lune glaze in a pale sky-blue tone,
the base inscribed with a six-character seal mark
in underglaze blue, wood stand
13.8 cm, 5⅜ in.

PROVENANCE

Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980)
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 11th April 2008, lot 2991.

HK$ 800,000-1,200,000

US$ 103,000-154,000

Notable for its elegant silhouette and attractive
luminous glaze, known as tianlan (‘sky blue’),
this vase draws on celebrated traditions and
reinterprets them to result in an innovative
and engaging piece. In form it is reminiscent of
bronze hu of the Han period; see a bronze vase
with a similar squat globular body, tall slender
neck and garlic mouth in the Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of
Treasures in the Palace Museum. Bronze Articles
for Daily Use, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 50.

The level of technical perfection attained by the
craftsmen working under the Qianlong Emperor
is evident in the meticulous form and symmetry
of the vase together with the thin translucent
glaze. A slightly larger vase of this form and glaze,
from the collection of P.J. Donnelly, was sold at
Christie’s London, 15th June 1998, lot 143. See
also a slightly smaller vase of this form, covered
in a light celadon glaze, illustrated in Regina Krahl,
Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection,
vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 853.

Mark SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
290