Page 330 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
1621
A VERY RARE FLAMBÉ-GLAZED ZUN-FORM VASE
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER INCISED SEAL MARK AND OF THE
PERIOD (1736-1795)
Glazed in imitation of Jun wares, the zun-form vase has a compressed
body raised on a spreading pedestal foot encircled by two bow-
string bands repeated at the base of the widely fared trumpet-shaped
neck. The exterior is covered with a mottled glaze of deep crushed
strawberry-red color subtly streaked in purple, and in milky blue that
falls from the mushroom-colored rim, while the interior is covered
with a streaked, milky blue glaze. A mottled caramel-brown and
grey-green wash of glaze covers the interior of the foot and the base.
9Ω in. (24 cm.) high
$200,000-300,000
PROVENANCE
Jay and Jacketta Quealy Collection, acquired before 1920, and thence
by descent within the family.
This rare vase, with its combination of glaze and shape, epitomizes the
interest during the reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors in wares from Song dynasty Jun vessels, and can be seen on a number of the Jun
being produced that referenced earlier periods. The fambé glaze represents vessels in the Qing Court Collection illustrated in The Complete Collection
the 18th century interpretation of the Jun glazes of the Song period, and
the shape is an interpretation of early bronze zun of late Shang and early Hong Kong 1996, pp. 16-38, which include zhadou (zun), fower pots, bulb
Western Zhou date.
Fig. 1. Vase in the shape of zun, covered with sky blue glaze. On
the base is a six-character mark of Yung-cheng (1723-35) in
underglaze blue. H. 34.5 cm. Seikado Bunko Image Archives /
DNPartcom.
328
One other porcelain vase of similar, but not identical zun shape, with
Yongzheng mark, in the Seikado Bunko, Tokyo, is illustrated by J. Ayers and
M. Sato in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Qing Dynasty, Tokyo, 1983, p. 201, pl.
281. (Fig. 1) Unlike the fambé glaze of the present vase, it is covered with
a ‘sky blue’ glaze and has a dark brown dressing on the rim, imitating a
diferent Song dynasty glaze, probably Guanyao. The shape of the vase,
which is taller (34.5 cm.) than the present vase, and has a more bulbous
body, is based on late Shang or Western Zhou dynasty bronze wine vessels
(zun). The present vase, however, with its more compressed shape and
somewhat angled shoulder is even closer in shape to the bronze prototypes,
such as a zun in the British Museum (22 cm. high) illustrated by J. Rawson
in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, vol.
IIB, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, p. 542, fg. 77.2. The present vase,
and the Seikado Bunko vase, have both borrowed the decorative feature of
double bow-string bands found on some of the bronze prototypes, but not
the surface decoration, allowing the glaze and shape to be the main focus,
which on the Seikado Bunko vase is accentuated by narrow fanges that
project slightly on two sides of the body and foot.
Other early bronze vessel shapes were also combined with monochrome
glazes during the 18th century, a number with fambé glazes, such as the
Yongzheng hu-form vase with mock mask and ring handles illustrated in The
Tsui Museum of Art; Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl.
32, and the Qianlong gu-form vase in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated
ibid., Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, p. 201, 278, which, like the present vase, is
decorated with a fambé glaze on the exterior and a milky blue glaze on the
interior. This combination, as well as the mottled wash on the foot, is copied
of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelains of the Song Dynasty (I),
bowls and washers. As with the present vase, the fared shape of the neck
of a zhadou, no. 13, helps to emphasize the attractive contrast of the brighter
glaze on the exterior and the paler glaze of the interior.
清乾隆 窯變釉尊 六字篆書刻款
(mark)