Page 172 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

Another Property
ⱷ970
A RARE AND UNUSUAL 'EEL SKIN'-GLAZED VASE
YONGZHENG IMPRESSED SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
12q in. (30.7 cm.) high, Japanese wood box
$150,000-250,000
PROVENANCE:
Mayuyama, Tokyo.

Opaque crystalline green glazes, like the ‘eel skin’ glaze on the present
vase, which belong to the tea-dust group, seem to have their origins in
the Tang dynasty at kilns making black wares, but reached their peak
of popularity on imperial porcelains of the 18th century. Their unique
appearance is due to slight under firing of a glaze with significant iron
and magnesium oxide content, which results in the development of fine
pyroxene crystals during cooling. These give the glaze the attractive
brown, greenish or yellowish micro-crystalline appearance, which was
so prized at the Qing court. The perfection of this glaze on porcelain
seems to have been achieved in the Yongzheng reign, when the imperial
kilns were at pains to produce elegant new glazes for the emperor's
appreciation. These glazes are sometimes called Changguan you or
'Imperial Factory glazes' in Chinese, and indeed they are mentioned
in Tang Ying's famous Taocheng jishi bei ji (Commemorative Stele
on Ceramic Production) of 1735, where three types are noted - eel-
skin yellow, snake-skin green, and spotted yellow. In particular,
the Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong seem to have admired the
'antique' quality that these tea-dust and eel-skin glazes imparted to the
porcelains on which they were used.
Yongzheng-period ‘eel skin’ glazed vases of this size are somewhat
unusual, perhaps because of the difficulty in firing the glaze to
perfection. A smaller (27.9 cm.) vase with 'eel skin' glaze modeled after
a bronze form was sold in Important Chinese Art Including Jades from
the De An Tang Collection and Gardens of Pleasure – Erotic Art from
the Bertholet Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 April
2022, lot 3614. The more standard, smaller (18.4 cm. high) shape found
with the ‘eel skin’ glaze is the bottle form with bulbous lower section,
such as an example with an impressed Qianlong seal mark sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2314.
清雍正 鱔魚黃釉瓶 Ս字篆書印款
Ϝ源
❤山龍泉ਕ，東̺

(mark)