Page 333 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

1623

A RARE GE-TYPE RECTANGULAR CONG-
FORM WALL VASE
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN
UNDERGLAZE BLUE IN A LINE AND OF THE
PERIOD (1736-1795)

The vase is molded in imitation of a jade
cong, but with the addition of a raised vertical
band that sweeps from below the shoulder
on one of the narrow sides up the center
of the front and continues up the other
narrow side to the shoulder. The fat back
is pierced with two small holes above an
integral ‘hook’ and with two further holes in
the fared foot. The vase is covered all over
with a thick grey glaze suffused with black
crackle, and the foot is covered with a dark
brown dressing.

11º in. (28.6 cm.) high, box

$40,000-60,000

Only two other wall vases of this shape with
the same kind of molded decoration, and with a
Ge-type glaze, have been published; one with a
Yongzheng mark in the Beijing Palace Museum
Collection is illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi,
vol. 1, Part 2, Beijing, 2005, p. 347, no. 159, the
other with a Qianlong mark was sold at Christie’s
Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3706. These wall
vases are very similar to vases of a complete cong
shape, such as the example with Qianlong mark
sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot
665. See, also, the Ru-type cong-form vase of
this form sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 June
2015, lot 3108. The shape and molded corners
of these vases are based on those of Neolithic
period jade cong of the Liangzhu culture, where
the three horizontal bands at the corners form
stylized masks, such as the example illustrated
by J. Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic
to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 127, no. 3:4.
The unusual molded decoration on these vases
also diferentiates them from the more usual Qing
dynasty vases of cong shape that are molded on
the corners with the bagua, Eight Trigrams, and
covered with a monochrome glaze. A Qianlong-
marked vase of this latter type, covered with a
Ge-type glaze is illustrated in The Charles B.
Hoyt Collection Memorial Exhibition Catalogue,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1952, p. 118, no.
469.
清乾隆 仿哥釉琮式壁瓶 單行六字篆書款

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