Page 64 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION
746
A LARGE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE MOONFLASK
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
The vase is decorated in rich underglaze blue with simulated ‘heaping and piling’ on the convex sides with
eight petals enclosing the bajixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems) radiating from a central boss decorated
with a fower head, on the narrow sides with a band of stylized lotus scroll, and with lingzhi scroll on the
slightly spreading rectangular foot and on the neck between the pair of blue-glazed, leaf-scroll handles
below a bow-string border and a band of key fret at the rim.
19 in. (48.3 cm.) high

$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE
Earle D. Vandekar, London.
The shape of these large Qianlong fasks is based on Ming-dynasty ffteenth-century prototypes, which
had one decorated, convex side and a fat, unglazed side with a countersunk medallion in the center. For
a Yongle (1403-1424) example, see the fask in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics,
The World’s Great Collections, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1981, no. 94. These ffteenth-century blue and white fasks
were themselves based on silver-inlaid brass prototypes.
For other similar Qianlong blue and white vases see Zhongguo Li Dai Jingdezhen Ci Qi - Qing Juan,
Beijing, 1998, p. 169, from the Nanjing Museum; Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, pl. 151; M.
Beurdeley and G. Raindre, Qing Porcelain, London, 1987, pl. 154, formerly in the Edward Chow Collection;
and Porcelain of the National Palace Museum, Blue and White Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Book II, Hong
Kong, 1968, pl. 15. One is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV - Qing Dynasty,
Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 75. And another from the Robert Murray Bell and Ann Walker Bell Collection is
illustrated by P. F. Ferguson, Cobalt Treasures, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, 2003, no. 28.
See, also, two examples sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3439 and 1 December 2010,
lot 2826.
清乾隆 青花八吉祥紋雙螭耳抱月瓶

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