Page 62 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTION The form of the present vase is based on Shang and Zhou
A GUAN-TYPE FACETED VASE (HU) dynasty bronze wine vessels, however, the unctuous pale
QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD bluish-green glaze suffused with fine craquelure evokes
Song dynasty guan celadon wares that also imitated ancient
the pear-shaped body of quadrangular section with canted ritual vessels. The Qianlong Emperor revered both, and this
corners, all supported on a straight foot and set with two lug vase attests to the Imperial ceramicists’ ingenuity in utilizing
handles at the neck, covered overall in a creamy pale bluish- historical precedents in the creation of new works that met
green glaze suffused with fine taupe-colored craquelure, the the Emperor’s exacting standards for quality and antiquarian
base with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue taste.
Height 5¾ in., 14.6 cm A similar vase in the collection of the National Palace
Museum in Taipei is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of
PROVENANCE
the Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). Ch’ien-lung Ware and Other Wares, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 82; one
from the Art Gallery of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
$ 60,000-80,000 was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of
the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong,
1995, cat. no. 63; and two vases of this type, one with a
清乾隆 仿官釉八方貫耳壺 crackled glaze and the other with a plain guan-type glaze,
are published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the
《大清乾隆年製》款 Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pls 874 and
875. Two further vases of this type are illustrated in Qing
來源 Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Hong
史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏 Kong, 2005, pl. 32; another is illustrated by John Ayers in
The Baur Collection, Geneva, vol. III, 1972, no. A344; and
an example from the Garner Collection was included in the
Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition The Arts of the Ch’ing
Dynasty, London, 1964, cat. no. 276. See also another from
the Edward T. Chow Collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms,
25th November 1980, lot 91 and on 19th May 1981, lot 501;
a similar vase that sold twice in our Hong Kong rooms, first
on 20th November 1985, lot 203, and then again on 6th April
2016, lot 3638; and one without the craquelure sold in these
rooms, 20th March 2012, lot 243.

60 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART