Page 33 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art London May 2018

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A HEXAGONAL RU"STYLE TRUNCATED This vase, with its compressed hexagonal form and delicate
GU"SHAPED VASE potting and glazing, displays the high level of technique of
YONGZHENG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD potters working at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The
creation of such monochrome wares required absolute
the rounded central section rising from a spreading foot to a precision in every stage of the production in order to create
wasted neck and everted rim, covered with a pale grey-blue ß awless pieces that revealed a deep understanding of the
crackled glaze, the base inscribed with a six-character seal essence of its Song originals. Only one other vase of this
mark in underglaze blue, Japanese wood box shape and size, also covered with ru-type glaze, is known, in
(2) the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan
10.3 cm, 4 in. cang. Qingdai yuyao ciqi. vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 146.
For a Song dynasty prototype to the vase, see one from the
This vase is striking for its reÞ ned body which is covered
Qing Court collection and now in the National Palace Museum,
in a luminous greyish-blue glaze, the beauty of which is
Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Precious as the
heightened in its small size. It not only captures the brilliance
Morning Star: 12 -14 Century Celadons in the Qing Court
th
th
of celebrated Ru ware of the Song dynasty (960-1279), but Collection, 2016, cat. no. II-6.
also captures the Yongzheng Emperor’s taste for innovative
forms based on archaic bronzes. A great connoisseur of ಴ £ 40,000-60,000
antiquities and with a discerning aesthetic sense for works of
HK$ 442,000-665,000 US$ 56,500-84,500
art, the Yongzheng Emperor was known to have commissioned
Þ nely manufactured wares that were marked with a restrained
elegance from the Þ rst year of his reign. Under the mastermind ૶འ͍ ͷϧཊʬ˙ಮ˗
of Tang Ying (1682-1756), Superintendent of the Imperial ɽ૶འ͍ϋႡ‘ಛ
kilns in Jingdezhen, many monochrome wares simulating the
elegance of Song glazes on both classic and innovative forms
were successfully developed.

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 31