Page 255 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

1243
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 sufused with black crackle,
and the foot is covered with a dark brown dressing.
11º in. (28.6 cm.) high, box

$30,000-50,000

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

(mark)

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