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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

1244
A GE-TYPE MALLET-FORM VASE

QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL-MARK IN
UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD
(1735-1796)
The domed body rises gently to a slightly
tapering cylindrical neck, all under a pale grey
glaze sufused with a network of black crackle that
continues over the rim and also covers the base.
The bottom of the foot is covered with a
brown dressing.
11º in. (28.6 cm.) high
$15,000-25,000

The Ge-type glaze on the current vessel is
especially successful, reproducing the close
crackle and slight translucency of the glaze to
very good efect, even on the base of the vase.
The shape and size of the current vase are both
very rare. The shape is of particular interest since
there are at least two possible sources from
among ancient forms. It is possible that the shape
is a simplifed version of an ancient bronze bell
shape, which had an elongated tubular handle
protruding from the body. The other possibility
is that the shape derives from the paper-mallet
form, which has its origins in wood, but can be
seen adapted as a ceramic vase among Song
dynasty Ding wares, such as the example in
the Percival David Foundation illustrated by S.
Pierson and S. F. M. McCausland, Song Ceramics:
Objects of Admiration, Percival David Foundation,
London, 2003, pp. 20-1, no. 1. It also appears
among Southern Song Guan wares, like the vase
in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great
Collections, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 1.
清乾隆 仿哥釉馬蹄尊 六字篆書款

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