Page 48 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A FINE BLUE AND WHITE ‘FLORAL’ HU VASE This vase belongs to a group of blue and white wares
QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD discussed in Julian Thompson, ‘Decorative Motifs on Blue
and White in the S.C. Ko Collection’, Chinese Porcelain. The
of archaistic form, well-painted in brilliant tones of S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, vol. 2, p. 31,
underglaze blue with simulated ‘heaping and piling’, with decoration adapted from 15th century designs but used
the ovoid body encircled by two bands, the upper with on a Chinese bronze shape ‘alien to the fifteenth century’.
continuous lotus scroll, the lower with a composite floral Vases of this form were first produced at the Imperial
meander, all between slightly raised double-line borders, the kilns in Jingdezhen during the Yongzheng reign, painted
shoulder set with animal mask and mock-ring handles, below in underglaze blue or covered in monochrome glazes. A
the waisted flared neck decorated with ruyi-bordered stiff Yongzheng blue and white example, from the Keralakis
upright plantain leaves and a narrow wave band around the Family Collection was included in the exhibition Chinese
rim, the bottom register with a further wave band above a Imperial and Export Porcelain. Cloisonné and Enamel Wares,
band of pendent petal panels encircling the high flared foot, S. Marchant and Son, London, 2005, pl. 37.
the base with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue
Height 9¾ in., 25 cm Compare a Qianlong vase of this form and design in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Porcelain of
PROVENANCE the National Palace Museum: Blue and White Ware of the
Ch’ing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 2 and another in the
Collection of John Milton Bonham (1835-1897).
Nanjing Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of
the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 235. Vases
$ 80,000-120,000
of this type have sold at auction, including in our London
rooms, 17th November 1970, lot 108; our Hong Kong rooms,
12th-13th May 1976, lot 131; and in these rooms, 23rd-24th
清乾隆 青花纏枝花卉紋舖首 May 1974, lot 421. A pair of vases first sold in these rooms,
耳尊 27th November 1990, lot 160, and later in our Hong Kong
rooms, 8th April 2009, lot 1679.
《大清乾隆年製》款
Vases of this type remained popular and continued to
來源 be made throughout the Qing period; for example see
John Milton Bonham (1835-1897) 收藏 a Daoguang mark and period vase illustrated in Geng
Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jiandong [Appraisal of Ming and
Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 510.

46 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART