Page 58 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

Catalogue Note
A devout Buddhist and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, the Qianlong Emperor commissioned the furnishing of the Buddhist
temples and ancestral halls with ritual vessels made from the finest materials, including cloisonné enamel, bronze and porcelain.
Vases of this form belong to this group of ritual wares, which were produced in a range of color palettes and sizes, and likely
formed part of five-piece altar garnitures.

A closely related vase in the Tu Huo Zhai Museum, Hangzhou, was included in the exhibition Treasures of Imperial Porcelain,
Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, 2001, cat. no. 130. Compare also ruby-ground examples sold at auction, the first in our
London rooms, 13th July 2005, lot 267, and the second in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st-2nd June 2015, lot 676. Compare also a
yellow-ground vase of this type and with a Qianlong mark and of the period, in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, included in the
exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 95; a coral ground example sold in these rooms, 8th October 2006, lot 1123 and a pair of doucai enamels
sold in these rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3707.

A complete set of altar garnitures with related designs which include two gu vases, decorated in doucai enamels, was sold in our
Hong Kong rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 50, from the Meiyintang Collection; and another set, presented by Lord Kitchener to Sir
Thomas Hohler, sold twice in our London rooms, 17th December 1980, lot 677, and again, 11th May 2011, lot 230.

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