Page 19 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

509

A BLUE AND WHITE ‘PHOENIX’
VASE
QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND
PERIOD

the ovoid body painted with ve phoenix and
peony scroll roundels above a band of raised
and molded upright lotus petals, the shoulder
with ve molded bats below a raised band
encircling the base of the waisted neck painted
as an archaistic phoenix scroll below a ared
mouthrim,the base with a six-character seal mark
in underglaze blue
Height 13½ in., 34.3 cm

The unusual six-character seal on the base of
this vase is identi ed by Geng Baochang as
a mark used at Jingdezhen at the beginning
of the Qianlong emperor’s reign in Ming Qing
ciqi jianding [Conoisseurship of Ming and Qing
Porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, p. 344. Geng
identi es the same mark on famille-rose, blue
and white, and on underglaze blue and copper
red vases, such as the garlic-mouth vase found
in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Wang
Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong,
1993, pl. 181. The mark is associated with Tang
Ying’s supervision of the kiln during this period,
and is further discussed by Peter Lam in his
essay Four Studies on Yongzheng and Qianlong
Imperial Ware in Ethereal Elegance: Porcelain
Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang
Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, p. 56.

$ 30,000-50,000

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 17